What Mental Health means to me: Vidushi Kaushik

Mental health, often considered unimportant by many, is one of the most essential parts of our lives that shape what we do. And how is that? Mental well-being ensures that we are undisturbed, we are focused, we are not stressed and most importantly- we are happy, which I haven’t heard many people say nowadays. This, which is of least important, especially in a country like India where being mentally unstable or having mental health issues is the taboo and often considered as making excuses. A being in India cannot suffer from mental issue and that is because this problem is either solved by the parents themselves by scolding their kids or by beating them off. People here don’t realize that having depression, being under stress, having social anxiety are real problems which has led to teens hiding these secrets from someone they call their parents because they think that their parents are not capable of understanding what they are going through which is only correct.

Mental health for me is more than just being free of mental disorders. It is feeling lonely in a room full of people and acquaintances, it is being constantly undermotivated in life, it is those continuous thoughts that come into our minds late at night that make us not want to wake up the next morning, it is that overthinking which stops us from talking with others, let alone connecting. It is this big doubt on yourself that you are good for nothing, it is this constant fear of thinking ‘WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT’ and it is this known feeling that you feel while reading this and which makes you wonder- is it you that is being talked about? Well, it’s not just you, it’s every other being including me. And being ashamed of these thoughts will help you get nothing. Instead embracing and accepting them with the promise of freeing yourself from these and becoming an even better version of yourself, along with helping those in need and giving them the feeling that YES, someone is there for them, is what will get you internal peace, which is not so common to feel especially with all the people we have that just want to pull our legs and drag us down with whatever means.

Attaining mental peace is not so hard but people around us make it so. Starting from scratch is the key. Solutions on how to attain mental peace are no secret but how many initiate them? Everybody wants to but nobody does. And what is stopping them is the feeling of inferiority and self-doubt that they will not be able to recover or look at themselves the way they used to before with that proud smile and grin. Hence, helping those in such crucial need and finding our peace and happiness is  what will help find ourselves again.

-Vidushi Kaushik