‘Feeling happy and stress-free’, ‘managing emotions’ and ‘feeling a sense of mastery over life’s challenges’. These are some of the responses nowadays we usually get among college-going youth when we ask them to come up with personal meanings of being mentally healthy. These perspectives of the youth are somewhat similar to the scientific conceptualization of mental health.
Youth form a very significant proportion of our population. Mental health concerns of the youth deserve special attention for several reasons. They are in a phase of life that is rich with potential, and that is marked by vulnerabilities. The onset of a large proportion of mental health problems is before 24 years of age. But it is a sad observation that only a small proportion of individuals who need professional help actually seek or receive it. This gap is due to many factors such as lack of awareness, ambivalence, stigma and the lack of easy access to professional services.
Among college going youth, multiple causes of stress can be attributed for development of mental health problems such as a significant sense of pressure and competition in academics, career as well as social spheres.
A high expectation of ‘being stress-free all the time’ can be a source of stress in itself, as it does not match the realities of the inevitable frustrations in daily life. Several youth are facing difficulties in ’emotionally connecting’ with their parents and teachers about the challenges that their social world poses. The frustration of ‘not being understood’ is a recurrent theme that usually emerges in youth discussions on mental health. The other issues that affect a sizeable number of urban youth in colleges are to do with migration from smaller towns to the culture of a metropolitan city and the experience of alienation, especially in the initial phase of adaptation.
Youth are increasingly recognizing that talking about their mental health issues does not necessarily mean that one is weak or that one has a severe mental health condition. In observations, some of the common concerns for which youth seek professional help are conflict-related frustrations, ‘grappling with depression and turmoil in the context of close relationships’, ‘confusion about career goals’ and ‘anxiety in social situations’.
When youth reach out to seek support, friends often become one of the first lines of support. This has multiple implications. Firstly, youth can be helped to hone their skills in providing support to peers who may be psychologically distressed. Secondly, youth can be helped to view support from friends as well as support from a professional as complementing each other rather than as substitutes of the other. Lastly, youth can play a very powerful role in fighting stigma that surrounds mental health issues in our society. We end up dampening the energy, initiatives and engagement of youth with mental health issues when we treat them as passive recipients of information or instruction, rather than as active collaborators in bringing about positive social changes.
Youth have tremendous potential to empower themselves and their peers with knowledge and skills that can help in prevention or early detection of mental health problems as well as promotion of mental health. Beadaar with a hash tag ‘LetUsTalkMentalHealth’ , an initiative by Ittifaaq confounded by a clinical psychologist Dr Zoya Mir and Nida Rehman is a testimony to the powerful role that youth can play in mental health promotion. In one of its recently conducted events at Gandhi Bhawan University of Kashmir, Ittifaaq has come up with a good platform for addressing mental health issues. Dr. Arshad Hussain, a renowned psychiatrist of the valley as a guest on the event put through emphasis on Mental Health and the Stigma associated with mental health issues. Gowhar Geelani, a renowned political analyst put stress on media’s role in acting as a connecting link between general public and mental health professionals to telegraph mental health issues effectively.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, thus it can be said that Mental Health Awareness campaigns are need of the hour and the engagement of youth in such campaigns is most vital. Media has a biggest role to play in telegraphing such mental health awareness campaigns to sensitize general public towards it.
(The author a doctor at Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital Jammu is also an Educator at Unacademy, India’s largest online education platform.His views are personal)
