Yours Truly, Mental Health
A scratch on the arm, a headache, even a papercut can make you rush to the emergency room. Only innumerable tests and doctor’s appointments later do you find yourself at peace. It’s funny how the smallest discomfort can make you run to WebMD and take your pick from a catalogue of unknown illnesses.
Although an ideal trait for a healthy individual, I do envy physical health, for it is treated with utmost importance. I have been a part of human beings ever since their origin, yet I seem to get lost in conversations surrounding wellness. Whether it is in movies or in real life, emotions guide actions of various individuals. Most of your favourite movies are a mixed bag of comedy, romance, passion, and aggression. Every step you take, every move you make doesn’t just come from an evolutionary need to protect yourself and reproduce.
Humans are so much more than just physical beings. Empathy, motivation, desire, ego, love, hatred, anger, sadness, resentment; these are words that cannot be objectively explained, just felt. They separate humans from other species. Let me ask you something: what comes to your head when you hear the word ‘human’? The interpretation most definitely doesn’t stop at ‘species.’ The word is quite often used to describe someone who has positive traits, such as warmth and kindness. How weird is that? Or maybe it isn’t at all.
Despite being related to such subjective descriptions, they choose to ignore me. They speak about how I’m not real, how it’s all ‘just in your head.’ Why, yes it is! It is in your head. It is in the head that makes you fall in love, the head that makes you travel long distances for your dream, the head that makes you lose your cool, the head that makes you upset, the head that makes you sad, the head that makes you mad, the head that makes you nervous during interviews, the head that pushes you to quit your job, the head that gives you hope and the same head that can take it away as quickly. You may not realise the number of times you say, “I’m sorry I reacted that way, I had something on my mind,” but I do. How much longer before you realise I drive your actions too? I, too, am real!
In recent times, some of you have been kind to yourself and recognised the role I play. Life becomes so much easier once you realise how important your feelings are. Some days, I feel unimportant, worthless. Be it a child of 10 or an adult of 60, I exist in each and every one of you. I define how you spend your days. I see you sleeping in your room for hours because of me, I see how you struggle to face people, to face reality. I see your internal cries for help. Why are they internal? Why are you, who is in touch with yourself, suffering because the world refuses to accept the importance of your mind? Why are you hiding beneath a mask of shame, when it is others who ignore the seriousness of your mental well-being? Why are you being told to not feel, when they carry the big, heavy bag of unresolved emotions?
And then they call YOU insane.
