Though “Mental Health” is a stigma in India, we cannot push the issues of Mental Health under the carpet. One has to agree that like physical health, mental health is also paramount in one’s life.
DEFINITION: WHO has defined mental health as a state of well being in which the individual realizes his own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to make a contribution to his community.
From last March 2020, with the closure of schools pan-India for physical classes due to covid-19, students are the worst-hit because of the new experience of virtual classes.
Though they are staying indoors, in the cozy environment under the watchful eyes of their parents, students are feeling stressed out. According to the survey done by the Indian Psychiatric Society, there is a 20% increase in the mental health issues among the students.
let us try to understand the reason for this kind of situation and the remedies available to address the problem.
Two main reasons for this hike could be the lack of school life where the students love to spend their time, learning and sharing the knowledge with the peers and absence of meaningful interaction with teachers, seniors, peers and the general public.
Following are some of the issues that could be attributed for the decline in the mental health.
- Over-dependence on electronic devices.
- Anxiety because of varied reasons: quality of network, ability to grasp the content during the online classes, various timelines to complete the task given by the teachers etc.
- Irritation because of the swings in mood.
- Excessive eating because of the various emotions like anger, fatigue, outburst etc.
- Exposure to the social media causes low self-esteem and tends to comparison with peers.
- The child is exposed to violent situations at home and these intra-familial incidents can cause PTSD- post-traumatic stress disorders.
- When a child learns high-risk behaviours by experimenting with pornography, sexting and other asocial things, child’s normal mental status is distressed.
- Examination-related anxiety and frequent postponement of the dates of examination, new exposure to the modes of online examination.
- Longer exposure to the electronic screen will bring out behavioural and emotional disorders.
- The foregoing are some of the causes for the un-sound mental health. Unfortunately, Indian society doesn’t discuss the problem of mental health as freely as the physical. Unless the parents realize that their children are not behaving normally and there is a ‘low feeling this scenario will further worsen.
Let us see some of the remedies to treat the problem.
- Allow the child to eat and sleep well and involve in physical exercises.
- Give enough personal space.
- Parents should respect the feelings of the kids and allow the two-way communication.
- Parental demands should never be unrealistic.
- Should encourage the children to help in the household chores.
- Parent and child can prepare a To-do list together for better ownership.
–Dr. P. Gopala Krishna
Laurus The Universal School