Mental heaIth and personal therapy are often considered as luxury items on one’s shopping list. I wonder why people dont understand and give due importance to these subtle and important aspects of one’s personhood. Just as one goes to a dentist or physician for one’s physical health problems why dont people seek out mental health specialist who are trained to understand their mind, emotions, thoughts, behaviors and can guide them to better and productive living.
Mental health issues, particularly depression, mood swings, anger, lack of assertiveness, low self esteem,dysfunctional family and relationships, cause severe economic,human and man power loss to the nations. People ‘act out’ their disturbances at work and in home life and in society in general. They either dont turn up at work, or create problems even when they do, with their difficult behaviors and attitudes. Yet the services of counselling, psychotherapy, group therapy, support groups and psychological workshops remains underutilised.
In India especially people prefer to talk out their issues to friends, family and spiritual masters. While it is great to have these social support networks in place the fact remains that these well meaning people are untrained in the subtle studies of the complexities of human mind and behavior. So while they may listen well(most dont even do that, they get into advice giving mode, listening is also a skill to be learnt and can be therapeutic) they are unable to be unbiased and objective, allowing you to reach the threshold of your mind.
