Why fear psychological treatment
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high”
So begins one of the immortal songs of Rabindra Nath Tagore’s Gitanjali. He here entreated almighty for converting his country into a kind of utopia where first and foremost, fearlessness of mind from all shackles would be ensured.Human mind is the most complex organism ever contrived by the creator. It is mind by dint of which man has become the supreme dictator of the earth with all its magnitude of flora and fauna. But when this complex organism gets disordered and starts malfunctioning, it paves the way for individual disaster. Here comes the need of a psychologist or psychiatrist or psychotherapist to restabilise a person’s mental mechanism.
Though the emergence of psychology and psychotherapy is not a new phenomenon, but its need is acutely felt in the current era, thanks to the increasing rate of stress and distress on human mind. From the inception of life man now-a-days is burdened by the heavy load of education or to be precise is “nipped from the bud”. In the cut-throat competitive world where Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” is the only rule, a man has to undergo a lot of troubles and hardships in order to ensure a secure life. In the young years, the effect of love and infatuation also spells doom for many so-called betrayed lovers. Therefore we find the newspaper everyday abounding in news relating to youth suicide owing to failure in love, academic debacle or incapability to satisfy parents’ expectations. Apart from these, many neurosis or psychological problems are congenital. Autistic or differently able children owe their malaise to abnormal birth or other such conditions. Usage of stimulants (nicotine, cocaine), depressants (opium, heroin, hooch, alcohol) and hallucinogens (hemp, bhang, hashish) etc are also responsible for disturbing normal course of action of mind. Due to all these reasons we find many psychological disorders among people around us like hallucinations, delusions, anxieties, flashbacks, tremors, delirium, insomnia, somnambulism and forgetfulness.
To cure all such maladies psychotherapeutic treatment is required. But the most alarming thing is that people don’t take recourse to such treatments for variety of reasons. Despite the sophistication in the field of psychotherapy in the forms of “group therapy”, “creative therapy”, “psychodrama and “hypnotism” etc, people’s cold attitude towards it is indigestible.
First of all people’s indifference towards it is due to their ignorance. In a country like India, psychological treatment has never been at the forefront. People frequent dispensaries for their physical ailment but mental illness are often underestimated. What’s worse, some even don’t regard psychological diseases like insomnia, delirium, forgetfulness to be diseases at all. Parents turn a deaf ear to their offspring’s incompatibilty in learning blithely unaware of the existence of Dyslexia (dread of letters) as a prominent factor among Asian students. So the unawareness of people aggravates the problem as the old adage runs “a spark neglected burns the house”
Apart from ignorance many rumors also vitiate the notion of psychotherapy. People in general believe that to be treated by psychiatrist validates one’s lunacy. So they show meretricious sound health while feeling the pangs of the diseases. This double dealing takes the better of the persons and ultimately adds more frustration to the existing sum. Some also avoid such treatment in fear of revealing their confidential personal details in front of a stranger. This tendency is to be found among grown ups as well as college students. They try to remain stoical but human endurance has a limit.
The expense of such treatment also aggrandizes people’s procrastination for it. Unlike physical ailments, the symptoms of these problems are hard to trace and elusive. So the treatment is also difficult for doctor which makes the price a little higher. Common people, who access its service, feel as if they waste their hard-earned money on some futile optimistic doctrines and genial talks of the psychologist. They feel this kind of oral interaction is not worth their money without conjecturing the difference it could bring.
In order to liquidate the reluctance among people, awareness is to be created. Print media and electronic media should highlight the pros and cons of psychotherapy. People should be made aware through books in the education system at an early age.
All the cobwebs of misconceptions are to be cleared first. People attending mental doctors should not be treated as mad or insane. The process should not be looked as a medical treatment at all. It must be made popular as counseling, assuring people of their mental well-being.
If middle class people can’t go to psychiatrist’s clinic, clinic has to come to them. Our government should take effort to curb the price of such treatment. Its a good news that the spa culture is gaining ground in India: now in metropolis like Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata etc. Spas can also be regarded as part of psychotherapy which provides their client with serene atmosphere with soft music in sublunary candle light.
But to our utter misfortune these spas are beyond the reach of common mass. They should suit the purse of common mass in order to be popular.
People should also be made aware of the ill effects of neglecting psychotherapy despite ill mental health. In fear of revealing personal matters, they are causing more threat to their mental equilibrium. This fact is to be indoctrinated to them. They should be cited examples of famous men falling victim to psychological stress. Nobel laureate Ernest Hemingway succumbed to suicide due to bipolar disorder, Sylvia Plath’s suicidal tendency is quite well known and we have obvious reasons to assume that world literature would have gained more had she taken recourse to any psychological treatment. Anne sexton, a famous American poet, was also a victim of the same problem. Their misfortunes are to be shown to public to acquaint them with the destructive power of the ominous silence.
Lastly many religious preachers like Ramdev, Ravi shankar are also teaching the world at large the “art of living”. Their preaching also to a great extent falls in category of uni-dimensional psychological counseling. They can also help people overcome many disorders and depressions of their lives. In the volatile world now-a-days accidents and blasts have become common occurrences but they have wide range uncommon repercussions. The victims die but the semi-victims can’t forget the nightmarish experience till their last breadth. Psychotherapy has to reach to them and cure their traumatic stress. Our education system should ensure frequent stress released campaigns and institutions for curing youngsters of drug addiction and dipsomania and smoking are to be made popular among people. In a perfectly aware atmosphere only, people can avail this facility with no hesitation what so ever and thereby secure peace of the nation which is fully dependent on the mental peace of its citizens.
umesh patra
m-9208411847
umesh.mla@gmail.com
