‘ I suffer from depression’. There I said it! But ssshhhh most of my relatives and even some of my friends or colleagues don’t know about it. Why? Because it’s still not okay in most communities, especially in India, to openly accept that one suffers from mental health conditions.
According to a study published by National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), 1 in 20 individuals suffer from chronic depression while another report by Indiaspends states that 60 million Indians suffer from one form of mental health disorder or another. However, in spite of such startling figures, openly talking about one’s mental health disorders in the Indian society is still a taboo. Anyone suffering from a mental health disorder, irrespective of whether it is depression, anxiety or schizophrenia, is invariably deemed as ‘MAD’in most parts of India.
So what really is mental....
