Zarafshan ShirazNew Delhi
People suffering from mental illness have been treated as outcasts and not considered healthy enough to be involved in our everyday activities for a long time now while being constantly ridiculed with phrases like, ‘You’re overthinking. The issue isn’t this big’, ‘Just exercise every day, everything will be fine’, ‘You are not trying enough. There’s no such thing as depression’, ‘Look at everybody else, they all do what you are doing but you are the only one who keeps cribbing’ hence, World Mental Health Day is important as it acknowledges that explaining that one doesn’t feel good from within isn’t as easy as it seems to be. The masses don’t understand what it’s like to live with mental morbidity and the apathy people show towards mentally unsound people is unfortunate and devastating.
Date:
October 10 is marked annually as World Mental Health Day.
History:
World Federation for Mental Health announced October 10 as World Mental Health Day in 1992 and celebrates it with a new theme every year. The day initially did not have a specific theme and its aim was to promote mental health advocacy and educating the public on relevant issues.
However, seeing the popularity of the campaign, a theme for the day was used for the first time in 1994, which was “Improving the Quality of Mental Health Services throughout the World.”
With each passing year, the day’s popularity continued to grow. Some of its early themes were Women and Mental Health (1996), Children and Mental Health (1997), Mental Health and Human Rights (1998) and Mental Health and Ageing (1999).
Significance:
World Mental Health Day provides an opportunity to talk about mental health in general, addressing issues related to how to break the stigma around it and the importance of speaking out when struggling with a mental health issue. Along with the treatment gap, we must address workplace stress, help adolescents in schools along with the caregivers and families of people living with mental health issues and proactively address stigma and discrimination associated with mental ill health that creates barrier to access care and treatment.
