A STORY OF DEPRESSION- SUSHAN SINGH RAJPOOT

Depression, a word that has become one of the most commonly known mental illness around the globe, needs little or no introduction because of its abundant presence and the way almost every human being has to go through it. Depression is majorly said to happen when one starts perceiving cognitive distortions, relies upon past too much and starts thinking in a way that they find no escape from and feels like all doors have been closed upon them. There are many forms of depression, but dysthymia is one of the most common and most serious. It impacts how you feel, how you reckon, and how you behave. Luckily, it can also be fixed. Distress leaves you feeling sorrowful and lose interest in things you used to enjoy. This can cause a wide range of physical and emotional problems, and that it can make it hard for you to operate and live a normal life. It includes symptoms of sadistic mood, mood swings, loss of appetite which ultimately results in loss of weight, either feeling trouble sleeping or spending too much time sleeping, feeling exhausted, also including obvious physical effects as well such as shivering of hands, or feeling the urge to move around too much and not being able to sit still and concentrate, aspiring more social validation or acceptance and increased requirement of sense of belongingness, and in worst cases the suicidal thoughts. 

Talking about our concerned case, a renowned Indian celebrity named Sushant Singh Rajput, born and raised in India, had reportedly committed suicide in his apartment, aged 34. Major causes were reported as the experiences he had been facing at the time and that he was going through depression. Sushant Singh was one of the toppers of his board during his college says and had gotten acceptance into an engineering university on scholarship basis due to his phenomenal academic performance and had immense love for physics and inventions and graduated as the topper of his batch during his engineering degree. Sushant gained worldwide fame with his career as an actor for Bollywood industry. Depression can acquire any form and can occur due to any reason, even much bigger celebrities who have starred in Hollywood such as Jim Carrey also go through worst forms of depression. Regardless of a person’s social status, his income or any other metric of success, a person can become prone to depression where they get stuck upon certain aspect of life and find it hard to come out of those thoughts. Story of Sushant Singh alarms us about awareness of mental health and acceptance regarding talking about it that is direly needed which already is a stigma to talk about mental health. In a world of such rapid changes and growing number of innovations and with such hyper reality at one click’s distance has left most of people around the globe comparing themselves to other people who are super competitive and achievement oriented. These behaviours have left people emotionally distorted which further lead them into developing negative thoughts about life and ending up as getting depressed. A depressed person might seem like living a normal life and having a good time doing what they do in their regular routines, but have depressing thoughts in their solo time, which is the reason mental health advocates urge and campaign for the awareness of mental health so that people become aware of their surroundings and notice if their friend or peer is going through such thing and offer them a helping hand in order to ease their racing thought of depression. 

Sushant Singh was observed to live a normal life whereas reports say that he had been facing depression due to various unknown reasons. The death of young actor had become the talk of town ending up with people narrating different reasons for the cause of Sushant becoming depressed such as facing bullying in the industry and the decline of his career due to his personal conflicts with other industry dominant figures. The reasons yet are still unknown to the day as to what lead Sushant into depression and suicide but has become a lesson for us all to take care of the people around us and keep checking upon our friends and family if we notice any changes in their usual behaviours. 

PETS HELP IN ELIMINATING ANXIETY

Human-animal relationships are extremely strong. And there's no denying that pets and mental health go hand in hand. According to a Harris poll from 2015, 95% of pet owners consider their animal to be a family member. Pets bring joy to children, teenagers, adults, and elders alike.

Pets have always been a perfect option for people while opting hobby to get busy in their schedules as well as get their minds off of the hectic routine they usually get stuck in. Studies and research have proven that pets help a person ease their mental stress and anxiety even by interacting for a mere time as 5 minutes. According to researchers, petting their animals releases dopamine and serotonin in their brains which ultimately help in eliminating anxiety. A psychologist named Alan Beck, affiliated with Purdue University, a psychiatrist by profession has published the very first research related to pets and mental health 30 years ago, according to which, he found out that pets have an ultimate effect upon the human body as a whole, not only confined to mental health, such as controlling blood pressure, that is, most pet owners can be seen becoming happier when interacting with their pets, secondly Alan determined that interaction with pets helped in slowing down the heart rate of a person. All of the signs mentioned in Alan’s research have proven to be signs of lessened stress in a human being.

The very first research published thirty years ago had developed scientists inclination towards discovering more about the relation between human beings and pets and further studies have proven that while observing their pet’s behavior and playing with them got their minds off of the tensions they had been facing throughout the day, ultimately making them feel like their pets are no lesser than their own family members.

While conducting researches, it was observed that pets help reduce stress in children and prevent them from childhood anxiety. Children who owned pets at their homes confront lesser tension within their lives and ultimately grow up to become mentally healthier and happier adults. Experiences and situations faced by a person through their adolescence have a huge effect on their mental health and determine the sort of adult beings they would turn out to be. So as far as pets are concerned, they would totally be beneficial in a child’s growth as it helps them develop a feeling of love and empathy towards animals and it not only becomes a hobby for them to become empathetic and loving towards living beings but also their nature develops into a loving ones

Owning a pet has its own perks and a feeling which cannot be put into words. The way the world is growing nowadays at a super-sonic speed and people getting busier with their lives along with hyper-reality social media just one touch away has left us human beings emotionally very distorted along with the hollowness followed by a need of belongingness and sense of validation by almost every human being. Owning a pet and having that creature to wait for you to just play with them gives a person an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction and belongingness which can be an extremely valuable feeling for pet owners which can be only understood by the experience of owning the pet.

Owning a pet has a dilemma of only staying limited to cats and dogs whereas it is not the case. Pets can be of any form, any species, or any animal. People around the globe have made it to the top marks of fame and reputation by owning unique pets such as an alligator, a porcupine, and above all, one that is considered one of the most expensive pet hobbies, that is, horses. Horse riding does not only have an effect upon a person’s mental health but also on their personality overall such as increased self-esteem, boosted confidence and also helps them stay in shape having an enormous effect on straightening their body postures, improvised leg strength as well as developing more alpha masculine traits. Horse riding is referred to as the game of kings, that is, it was globally admired by all the kings and emperors, including various warlords and dominant warriors in ancient times, which used to be a symbol of strength and strong mind-sets.

To conclude it all, it has been proven and accepted as a fact that pets have a positive effect on the mental health and well-being of a person helping people in improvised focus and better concentration.

 

 

Nostaligia - It's impact on mental health!!

 

Is nostalgia a neurological disorder or it is just a normal feeling or attachment with our past?

 

Sometimes somethings just remind us of the past. Things we used to be very attached in our past for instance music, a certain sound, event, etc. and then suddenly something reminds us of that attachment and we get a pleasure of enjoying that moment again. Sometimes it's pleasure and for some bad events in past, it becomes a cause of sorrow or even anxiety or depression. 

The sentiments you have about your past that gives you a pleasure in your present is called nostalgia.

Before the 17th century nostalgia was referred to as a neurological disorder. The word is combination of ancient Greek, "Nosos" means returning to home or native land and algos referred as pain or suffering. The reason behind it was that the soldiers longing to go to home, always having an urge to meet their families and remembering them was referred to as a bad sign of nostalgia. At that time many psychologists attributed that it is a sign of severe depression if someone is living in the past. 

 

Well, always living in a past can be red flag of depression but sometimes having an affectionate feeling for your past, Sharing or reliving your past is a healthy lifestyle. As after 19th and 20th century after many researches, researchers found that nostalgia is not a neurological disorder, but in fact it is a good way to deal with loneliness, boredom and anxiety. It was found that many almost everyone has this sentimentality with some events in past. While remembering about the good events and attachments in the past, one feels a pleasure and gives a feeling of having a continuity in life, reminding him/her of his/her roots. It gives a texture to life and strength to move on. It gives a will that the life had good events the problems were resolved so it gives a hope that everything can be solved. In fact, while sharing your nostalgic memories gives a kind of relief and attachments to others. Couples who share their thoughts and memories of their past tend to become closer. When you share your experiences with others, the other person understands you better and the bonding becomes more stronger eventually. It reduces stress and feeling of loneliness.

Experimenting if it’s true or not

To test whether it's true or not some researchers did a very interesting experiment. They made some people read about a very deadly disaster to study their behavior. Expectedly they were worried about the victims of disaster and their feeling of being alone so they became more nostalgic. The experiment was a success as they practiced some nostalgic activities or exercises and then they felt less depressed.

Memories can be also a mix of sorrow and joy

These exercises are not always Joyous and stress relieving. Sometimes some memories are not always content. Sometimes they are mix of both the sorrow and joy. We remember the good parts, good time and events spent with a particular person but when we remember that the particular person in no longer with you, it becomes painful to remember. As long as you face the truth and share more good side of your nostalgic attachment, nostalgia remains a healthy activity. But when you keep remembering and not sharing the bad sides of your past for example any trauma, any person you lost, or sometimes people overthink and try to feel and bring back the older themselves that doesn't feel any more in you as you evolve day by day, then nostalgia becomes a problem. This sense of loss of others or yourself causes anxiety and mental illness. But according to researches nostalgia is not the only or main cause of anxiety in such rare cases, there are many other factors involved for example any genetical disorder, any other mental or neurological disorder that has nothing to do with nostalgia.

The positive results of nostalgic exercises are way more than the negative ones that have been seen very rarely. And it is also not clear that the negative outcomes are even the result of nostalgia or not.

This means that we cannot relate nostalgia to home sickness as in early centuries it used to be referred as. In fact, it is a healthy activity to get a relief from stress or something disturbing you. But indulging too much in your past is also not good as you enjoy less in your present or your mental health gets affected if you keep remembering about past unhealthy events. So, conclusively Nostalgia is not a neurological disorder but if practiced occasionally in appropriate manner it can become a healthy activity to get rid of daily stress.

Screen usage-How it effects the mental health..!!!!!

 

Does the usage of screen really effect the mental health? How does screen usage really affect the mental health?

Everything have good or bad impact on us it’s depend on us how we utilize those thing take example of usage of the screen if we use it properly it will beneficial for us if we use in not productive way we will damage our self.

In the last two decades we have seen the digital technology bloom well that is also why we spend our most of time on the screen. Many studies shows that the more usage of the screen can cause the depression and mental health issues.

Usually kids and the adults now a days spend most of their time on the screen so that they are not able to do the physical activities and also they are not able to interact with their friends and the family face-to-face that thing lead to the reduction in the mental growth and increase the risk of depression.

Those who spend more than six hours on the screen and don’t do the physical activities they were distracted, less emotionally stable and also find difficulty to finish the task it also cause the obesity and different other types of the diseases in the children and the adults who spend more time on the screen.

Covid-19(Lock down) and screen usage

During the period of the lockdown the usage of the screen rapidly because everyone is at home and do their work from the home through different app and there is also many business which raise in the lockdown but again these are the online business which increase the screen time and the universities student take online classes and do their assignment on the laptop which increase the agitation level in the students and also that decrease the creativity level.

Many studies shows that in the lock down people are unable to interact with each other and they spend more time on screen that cause tension in the person and they are unable to focus on the work from home and their studies which leads to decrease in the quality result.

Does usage of screen low the self-esteem and increase the depression in the person?

The constant increase in the time on the screen develop the depression in the human being they spend more time on the social media in our opinion that we are connected with our family and friend but we are not connected we just replacing our real time relation with the screen. The use of mobile, tabs and the laptop is the sedentary time which leads to the depression in the person. This thing also effect the personal life because we are not able to give our time to our family.

We spent our more than half time on the social media while the screen usage on which we see many influencer and the celebrity which have the strong impact on us and we tart compare ourselves with them and try to copy them which leads to the low self-esteem you will feel discourage about that thing and the negative talk on the social media will also affect your mental health you may think poorly about yourself.

Effect on sleep

The usage of the screen have an impact on

 our sleep we watch our favorite shows

,drama and play games  before going to the

sleep that effect our quality of sleep and the duration

of the sleep which leads to the worsen the mental health condition that include the depression and anxiety etc. We can observe these things in the kids and in the teenager. We should not use the mobile at least 30 min before going to the bed in order to have a quality sleep.

Support your mental health rather than harm it by using the screen we should use it in mindful. Parents should limit the usage of the mobiles, tabs etc. They should engage their children in physical activities.

 Traffic and It's Impact on Mental Health

Road traffic has always been a distraught start of the day for everyone. Although traffic has always been an unpleasant interaction on road since the invention of roads and cars but due to increasing population and use of vehicles has made traffic much more stressful. Production and consumption of vehicles worldwide has gone to approximately 92 million per year. Although infrastructure, road size, traffic rules and regulations have been improved according to the increased used of automobiles but still everyone face traffic issue.
Have you ever thought that how a traffic on road can effect your mental health immensely?
It is a human psyche that he can't wait for too long and when someone has to reach somewhere on time, road traffic becomes even more irritating.

But waiting in a long cue is not the only part of traffic but the pressure and stress of reaching on time, the horns around you creating noise pollution, the stress of getting out of that mess, the stress that someone behind you is waiting for you to get aside, and when the weather is not pleasant for you it also becomes a stress. And when you start your day with such kind of stress your day as a whole becomes a stress. Naturally you become irritated to everything around you, your mind be still in that traffic and getting confused, you can't work properly and there's no productivity left in your day.

Traumas on accidents leading to stress
A recent research mentioned in "International Journal on Environmental Research and Public Health" stated that road traffic indicates around 2 - 3% increase in depression risk.
Traffic noise and stress results in different behaviors and reactions of individual from different sources of traffic noise. Research has found that different kind of source of traffic noise has different effects on individual's mind for example some horns are more irritating than others causing more abrupt reactions of individuals. These reactions may lead to more stressful environment and becomes a reason for depression and anxiety and even road accidents are caused by such kind of chaos made in road traffic. Approximately 1.3 million people are met with accidents in road traffic.

Accidents due to road traffic is another issue to discuss but the after affects due to road accidents are severe as it usually gives a lifetime trauma or depression to survivor or usually to the family of that individual. Also the road traffic accidents around 3 percent of GDP is lost due to Deaths and injuries. Nonfatal Road traffic accidents have different outcomes i.e., psychological suffering, Cognitive dysfunction, adjustment disorder, functional impairment, loss of quality of life. Most common disorders of accident survivors are Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, etc. These factors are usually ignored while taking care of physical injuries but they have to be looked upon as they can disrupt an individual's whole life quality.
These above are all the consequences of traffic and the chaos made due to traffic which can be minimized in various ways.

Government and traffic Rules, policies, projects on development (like providing quality and safe road infrastructure, strict punishments on violations on rules, training traffic police more, spreading awareness, using advance systems to over look and regulate traffic, providing quick services on any emergency on road causing traffic to reduce it) play an important role in controlling not only the irregularity in roads but might also help in controlling the consequences of this traffic in shape of depression and anxiety.
Besides the traffic police and government it is our duty as a good citizen to take care of the policies, behave patiently and spread awareness to others to follow the rules to reduce the factors creating traffic like over speeding, distracted driving etc.
Another initiative we can take is that we should minimize the access use of automobiles on road. If it is not necessary don't use a four seater car for one person you can use a public transport or can ask for friends to give you a ride if they are going the same place.
Also as a student or worker when you have a day to day routine of going somewhere instead of going alone per vehicle you should avail for a company, University or School bus to reduce traffic or at least you should be getting out of your home at least 20 to 30 minutes prior to your required time as it will reduce the stress of being late.
We should spread awareness on this and motivate others to do the same. It will reduce the traffic on the road, lesser will be the chaos and noise pollution and lesser will be the risk of depression.

ADHD-What is ADHD? Is it an excuse? How is it misunderstood?

 What is ADHD?

Have you ever come across a person who is immensely intelligent but looks so lazy, Someone who has so much potential to do something but they can't focus and they are lazy? Majority of parents and guardians just scold the children who can't sit still, can't focus, fidgets a lot or forget lots of things, but they don't have the proper knowledge that these are basically the symptoms of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

 

Mostly people think that if their child/kid is being lazy and not good at focusing or is not being able to sit for a while they leave it to them considering it there playfulness, laziness or just being irresponsible. They will leave them be and think that they will be fine when they grow up. This is a huge misconception that people with ADHD will be fine when they will grow up. But in fact, those children with ADHD will grow up with it, the symptoms, the disorder won't disappear in future but will be more tough to treat.

 

If anyone, a child or an adult, shows such symptoms they should immediately be treated medically. Imagine a person suffering from this disorder is only being criticized or blamed for there behavior when they didn't even do anything and they don't even know what to do with it? How to live with it? Their mental health is shattered in struggle to cover up and live with it. Having same IQ and intelligence of your fellows but not being able to perform to their full potential, how would they have felt?

 

Many adults with ADHD are unaware that they have it, they only know that they struggle with normal activities which their fellows can do easily. Adults with ADHD may struggle to focus and setting priorities, resulting in missed due dates and missed meetings or social commitments. The failure to control the situation can be very annoying such as while waiting in line or driving in traffic, mood swings and temper tantrums. They just can’t do simple activities with ease, because they feel angry or irritated with them. We have often seen children or teens throwing tantrums on simple things because they can’t help it so they feel angry. People with ADHD are impulsive, they don’t have self-control so they do many things on impulses.  

When ADHD is diagnosed it is treated by two methods. First, they treat it with medications. Second, they collect information from the patient’s parents or guardians and start behavioral therapy. Behavioral therapy helps in reducing the medication and is very much effective in treatment. Mostly the symptoms start at childhood but if not treated they continue even in adults. Mostly adults with ADHD have one other mental health issue. Such are the effects of it are on one’s life. Many adults face trouble in building relationship because of ADHD. Their mood swings, frustrations and impulsiveness can cause a lot of harm for everyone they are related with, even their social circles get affected by it. 

It is a fact ADHD makes it difficult for a person to maintain his/her focus, but when it comes to mobile phones, video games, and televisions, however, the constant change of image, graphics, and games can captivate their attention. Their brain starts wanting the reward it receives when they're looking at a screen, making it difficult to pull themself away from it. It is also affecting their life as it makes them seem like someone who just don’t want to focus on their studies or work, when it is just an effect of ADHD.

ADHD can cause anxiety, sleep problems, panic attacks, impulsive buying, screen addiction, bad eating habits and chronic stress. When you have the disorder, your stress level is likely to be higher most of time. These problems can cause many troubles and create hindrances in one’s life. It may not have that much affect in their childhood but when they grow up with this problem it can affect not only their day-to-day activities but also professionally, they won’t be able to keep up the good work with these mood swings and frustrations. Also, impulsive buying can lead to a very bad financial condition and compulsive eating can harm their stomach and cause digestion problem.

There are many natural ways of treating ADHD too. For example, exercising, planning your sleep schedule and planning your meals, creating a routine, make goals for yourself, starve your distractions, having goals set for your life etc. While these are some natural remedies to treat ADHD but seeking medical help is necessary to treat it.