Mental Sickness/Psychological disorder

This is one of my first posts on Counselling though I have much more interest in the subject than depicted on this blog.

Contrary to the popular belief, mental sickness troubles more people than any other physical illness. It is just that the symptoms are not openly visible. Also, the other misconception is that people who visit the psychologist or have been diagnosed with any mental illness are all mad.

What is mental sickness/Psychological disorder?
Mental sickness is just a state of mind, where people tend to show an uncommon behaviour at a given situation. There are many scientific definitions available for the same that are easily available on the internet. The common ones are Depression, over possessive, split personality etc.

What causes Mental Sickness?
Childhood. Any heart ache has its roots in childhood experiences and is very closely related to the family. The cause could be separation, or neglect or as silly as not been given with something. Most common cause is the feeling of “being neglected” and “not given due importance”. The child tries to do things to get attention. When s/he doesn’t get the due attention repeatedly, they start trying new means like shouting, screaming, self hurting to be noticed. Over a period of time when the child doesn’t get what he wants, he gradually finds out ways to ensure that s/he gets what is required.

Most of the time people around this troubled child ignore the symptoms as childhood pangs. And as child starts growing s/he gets used to the system and occasionally exhibits the symptoms or when provoked with a situation that warrants them to.

When is the mental sickness recognized?
There is no specific point at which the problem explodes or recognized. Generally it is some incident or reoccurrence of a similar situation that provokes suppressed behaviour to be exhibited.

For ex., if a child had been neglected in his childhood by his parents, such a child develops the habit of being extremely possessive. And any thing that is important to that child becomes a possession. The thing could be a toy or pet or someone as a close friend. The child will exhibit a completely different behaviour when separated from that important thing. Then for that child having that toy/friend/pet is the only primary aim. S/he can do anything to retain the target in his possession. The possessive behaviour can be in extremes (often exhibited as second personality) and they forget to see if the toy is broken or friend/pet is hurt due to their possession.


What is the cure?
Though there is no one particular cure for mental sickness, these days there are medical remedies available. One important factor in the cure is the Determination and Positive Attitude of the patient to cure himself from the problem. If a person has no determination the medical remedies either become a short term remedy or a quick fix solution that will not completely cure the illness.

Family Support
People suffering from such disorders need an extra ordinary amount of support from the family depending on the problem. In some cases, where the patient exhibits a severe kind of disorder, it becomes a highest degree of punishment to the family and most often the family gives up.

For ex., a person who is extremely possessive, life becomes hell for the person who is being possessed. Generally it is the person’s girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse and has to just do whatever is expected by the patient and nothing else. The patient will neither accept that he has a problem and get it cured nor will let the target/victim go easily. Finally, the victim will get so much troubled by the patient that s/he will not be able to support any more. They will be left with no choice but flee from that patient. This is just one example of an extreme case.

More will follow.

Education – Meaning and Usage

Education means:
- “activities that impart knowledge or skill”
- “education is a preparation for life”
- “the result of good upbringing (especially knowledge of correct social behavior)”

The word education is derived from the Latin - educare meaning “to raise”, “to bring up”, “to train”, “to rear” etc.

Today, education means adding more qualifications to ones’ CV. This is like specialist knowledge gained in a specific stream and actually not Education.

Education has kind of stopped grooming a human to prepare for the life, understand sensitivity, proper upbringing etc.

Adding higher qualifications to his/her CV, the more s/he values mental thinking, strategic thinking etc. And such thinking does not have place for - emotional thinking and sensitivity to others’ feelings, warmth etc challenging the essence of human life. We are educating to become more like machines in our thinking.

My observation is that – A person, who promotes such thinking, does have emotional thinking, sensitivity, warmth but that is only at his convenience.

This convenience is a multi-tiered one. Generally it surrounds first – himself/herself, then his immediate family and then a few close friends. Occasionally, warmth is shown for a stranger only when it is known that it’s going to benefit him/her in someway.

Where are we heading to? A land filled with “sel fishes”!

Seasons of life

Nature has a constant change.

Rains
Rain comes as a boon not only to the vegetation but also to the people after the hot summer. Tiny drops of water collectively make wonders that all our senses relish.

The smell of mud after the first rain of the season takes you to a mystic world of peace! - an act of cleansing the soul?

It cleans the vegetation of the dust they have been carrying through the other seasons. The rain continuously leases life to the worn out vegetation. The color of prosperity not only is soothing to eyes but also a retreat to the worn out mind.

Winter
Come winter, the vegetation has grown sufficiently well. The atmosphere has enough moisture. The freshness of cool breeze coming from the plants and trees around can never match the latest technology ACs.

Slowly, the plants start shredding their grown leaves. Aging is painful. Dark, gloomy, muted environment – apt time for introspection? The trees which were radiating prosperity now look empty with only the trunk and barks. A show of solidarity to carry-on majestically through thick and thin!

Spring
The nightingale announces the start of spring with its beautiful voice. A pleasant and cheerful environment around that everyone will look forward to. Neither too cold nor very hot.

Colorful flowers blooming and butterflies flying around, birds chirping and children playing! A dream that every human dreams of, once in lifetime – time for fun and reaching out to people!

Summer
One season, kind-of dreaded by most in the tropical region! The life perspires and is at the mercy of the Sun god. The backbone of our life can be excruciating! It reminds of tough times in ones’ life.

Each and every season has its own benefits. And the disadvantages we think of each season are essential elements for the cycle.

Humans try to overcome these disadvantages to the maximum unlike other living organisms.

Most of the living organisms try and modify themselves for the “constant” changes of the environment. And humans modify everything around them except themselves! Soon, there will be a day when the humans will not have any immunity.

Seasons add life to the monotonous existence. Each one of the season signifies the lessons and the stages of life.

We, the intelligent of all the animals on the earth, see the seasons physically. These seasons never happen mentally. Our mind does not grow or change “constantly” according to the seasons. Good or bad, we are trained like that.

Don’t you think that the mind & heart need these seasons? A season for cleansing & growing, one for introspecting, another for enjoying and the fourth for with-standing the atrocities we have made for ourselves.