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Making Mental Health And Well-Being A Global Priority For All

Ms. Snigdha Samantray

3 Min Read

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All of us, at some point in our lives, feel a sense of loss or detachment from our families, friends, and regular routines or experience nervousness and anxiety about unplanned changes in our personal and professional lives. Who doesn’t get scared by these? While these could be infrequent unpleasant normal life events, however, the pandemic has completely changed the definition of normality for everyone! The global impact of the pandemic, followed by the global economic downturn, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the ongoing climate change catastrophes, has created a global crisis for mental health. This led WHO to observe ‘mental health and well-being as a global priority for all’ as the theme for this world mental health day.

Why is mental health important?

The WHO report 2001 stated the global count of mental health disorders as 450 million, which went up to an alarming 970 million in the year 2019, and the estimates show a 26% and 28% increase, respectively, for anxiety and major depressive disorders within a year of the onset of the pandemic. Studies have shown that mental health disorders have a strong impact on the human body leading to a biochemical imbalance in the brain, hence disturbing the equilibrium of our thought process resulting in dysfunctional actions and behaviour. A stable and balanced mind is the minimum prerequisite to bringing out the best version of us.

How can I improve my mental health and well-being?

Mental health and well-being must be a part of your everyday lifestyle. Just the way you take your bath every day or clean your house every day, activities to ensure mental well-being needs to be an everyday practice. Here are 5 preventive measures, if practised every day, can build the resilience of your mind.

Take a 30 min walk every day. Any form of physical activity results in the release of the endorphins that keep your mood pepped up throughout the day.
Practice any form of breathing relaxation exercise for at least 20-30 mins in a day. This builds your mind muscles and is an excellent way to discipline your mind and prevent it from mindless unproductive thinking.
Journal your thoughts every day. Examine your thought journal once a week, and over a period, you will understand the pattern of your thoughts and whether it is leading you in the desired direction
Invest in building social connections. Your brain is not designed to exist in a bubble or in isolation. Investing in meaningful connections gives you a sense of belonging, especially during tough times.
Be grateful and always have something to look forward to. When the time goes tough, fall back on gratitude towards all you have. When you wake up in the morning, have something that you can look forward to. And this need not be some great professional project that you are working on but something as simple as gardening or playing a musical instrument or making yourself your favourite cup of tea.

How can we help people with mental health issues?

Becoming aware of mental health issues yourself is the first step to helping someone towards mental health awareness. If you know anyone who is facing emotional difficulties, provide them with your assistance using these 5 simple ways:

Read to them and educate them about mental health issues and why it is important.
Share your own stories of emotionally difficult times and help them understand it’s okay to feel painful emotions. Encourage them to not feel ashamed but see merit in their strength to endure.
Share your life hacks with them and the tools you use to overcome your stress and worries.
Follow up with them and check on their well-being. Make sure to stay connected in a way which is not intruding in their personal lives.
Guide them to mental health professionals. Encourage them to take counselling and help them book their sessions.

How important is the implementation of global mental health initiatives?

Humanity is interconnected, and a single cause can disrupt the entire humanity. What could be a better example to explain this than the 2020 pandemic? Unfortunately, the rising global count of mental health disorders seems to be the next pandemic of dysregulated emotions. The present-day world is a ‘BANI World’: Brittle, Anxious, Non-linear & Incomprehensible. This sort of a world needs strong minds to endure. Mental health can be a global priority when we have the patience and understanding to cooperate with everyone in every walk of our life to support the mental health of others and our own selves.

Every organization: starting from family to work, holds the responsibility of ensuring the mental well-being of their family members, friends, employees and coworkers, just not at a policy level but also at a deep compassionate level with genuine care for their mental well-being. We need not wait for big policies to be framed or implemented by government or organizations but start the process in our own little capacity and bring changes that ensure the mental well-being of everyone we associate with in this walk of life.

Reference:

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-disorders.
https://www.who.int/news/item/28-09-2001-the-world-health-report-2001-mental-disorders-affect-one-in-four-people
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2022/10/10/default-calendar/world-mental-health-day-2022—make-mental-health-and-well-being-for-all-a-global-priority

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Written by

Ms. Snigdha Samantray

Ms Snigdha Samantray is a Certified Clinical Psychologist and Digital Mental Health Specialist, currently working as a Program Manager and Clinical Psychologist at MFine. She played a key role in the establishment of the Psychotherapy specialty at MFine.

Making Mental Health And Well-Being A Global Priority For All

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