मन के हारे हार है, मन के जीते जीत

Doesn’t look like the coronavirus is going to leave us anytime soon. ICSE has cancelled our boards exams due to the current condition so I am officially done with my 10th exams after 16 months. Finally! Now I am officially in 11th. It was a very confusing 3 months when I was stuck in between. That has passed so let's move ahead with life (not like normal but the new normal)

For my 11th and 12th, I have opted for humanities. A lot of you would want to know why. If yes, then please read my older blogs to know why.

To help us get an Introduction to Psychology, which is one of my subjects, our psychology teacher asked us to attend an Online Summer Internship for Psychology Students by Fortis Hospitals. The agenda of this internship was to discuss the topics - Clinical Disorders, Psychological Interviewing, Applied Fields of Psychology, Health Psychology and Experiential Understanding of the Self. This Internship shed light on an important but largely ignored side of psychology- Mental Health. About how mental illnesses are like any other illnesses. Our job as interns was to advocate mental health and spread awareness through a social media project. This is my project.

During the 2nd session, Fortis Mental health team Announced that they are going to start a series of workshops in different domains of Psychology. They announced that there is going to be one on Sports Psychology too. If you know me, you would know anything that has the prefix sports interests me. So, I had to attend this workshop. This workshop was conducted by Divya Jain. I was always under the impression that sportsmen and sportswomen need psychologists only if they are suffering from depression or the pressure of competitive sport is affecting their mental health. All these assumptions were only a part of it. A sports Psychologist can actually help a sportsperson get prepared for pressure situations, help condition a player so that they are equipped to face various other situations, they help players get out of injuries and do a lot more than what I thought they would perform. I also learnt that if a player was going through depression, they would go to a clinical psychologist like all of us, not a sports psychologist. A lot of my beliefs about mental health, sports psychology and psychology in general were cleared, thanks to this workshop.

A sportsperson has to go through tons of struggles and hardships and after all this if they don’t succeed, the pressure to perform increases. Being a successful sportsman can be stressful as well as you have to cope with the pressure of playing at the highest level as well as cope with the expectations put up by the crowds. A lot of sportsmen and sportswomen’s autobiographies, documentaries and biopics have a mention of it. You might be thinking there she is, back to autobiographies and documentaries but don’t they tell us a lot. Let me talk a little bit about A biopic most of you might have watched, MS Dhoni the Untold Story starring the late Sushant Singh Rajput as the lead. Even though MS Dhoni doesn't show many emotions (aka our captain cool), you could almost feel the pressure from the screen. All of us go through it, in different forms and shapes and it is not always bad. It makes us who we are. But like everything else too much of everything becomes hard to deal with. We can always reach out to a friend, family member or any loved one and share it with them. But instead, we think that sharing problems will make us become weak and vulnerable but instead, it actually gives you the power to fight your problems. Speaking out helps to deal with it otherwise the pressure will add up and cause problems.

The book Tuesdays with Morrie, one of my favourites, is about the relationship between a student, Mitch Albom and his teacher Morrie. Morrie is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and is dying with hardly a few months to live. Still Morrie is able to help Mitch with many life problems and makes him a better person. Morrie is a huge believer of love. He says that we don’t accept love as we think it will make us soft. According to him, we should learn to let in love as “love is the only rational act”.

Mental illnesses are serious and real. While doing a little research on mental illnesses I felt like the numbers are way higher than they should be. This is from a WHO report-

“WHO estimates that one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. Around 450 million people currently suffer from such conditions, placing mental disorders among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide. Globally, the total number of people with depression was estimated to exceed 300 million in 2015, equivalent to 4.3% of the world’s population. Depression is ranked as the single largest contributor to global disability (7.5% of all years lived with disability in 2015). At its worst, depression can lead to suicide, over 800 000 people die due to suicide every year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds.

In India, the National Mental Health Survey 2015-16 reveals that nearly 15% Indian adults need active intervention for one or more mental health issues and one in 20 Indians suffers from depression. It is estimated that in 2012, India had over 258,000 suicides, with the age-group of 15-49 years being most affected.”

I bring this up as we are all still mourning the loss of a very fine actor Sushant Singh Rajput who we very unfortunately lost a couple of weeks earlier due to depression. Everyone is finding it even more difficult to accept his death as his movies taught us to never give up and that suicide is never the option. He might have gone to that path but we shouldn’t. I will tell you why I am even more sure of it. Foremost was Watching his family and close friends deal with his sudden death. It is heart-wrenching and we should look at that, we should look at how much pain they are going through. He, unfortunately, felt like he didn't have an environment where he felt like he could get help. This teaches us that we should always be approachable, empathetic and kind to everyone. We don't know their story and what they are going through. Right now, everyone is objectifying his death and talking about nepotism and depression and putting up stories on Instagram saying that they are there for us if we are facing any problem. This will go on for a week or two and maybe for a month. Then we will be back to normal. We should not take this as a celebrity death but as a wake-up call that fame and wealth isn't everything. Little things matter. Things like Surrounding yourself with people that you love and care about is as important, if not more. This quote from Tuesday with Morrie sums it up well

“This is part of what a family is about, not just love. It's knowing that your family will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work.”

Stay safe, Stay happy.