Dr M Ahmed Abdullah
Mental health issues have high prevalence and incidence all around the world. Many, if not all psychosocial conditions have both short-term and long-term effects on the human body.
Mental health conditions have deep rooted relationships with both infectious and non-infectious diseases.
The treatment modalities presently available for psychological ailments range at both extremes of the spectrum with treatments ranging from habit forming medication to ritualistic exorcisms.
Yet in my practice, I have been seeing a common trend among our people; that people spend purposeless lives, stuck in cycles of demand and supply, of needs and wishes and of self-imposed burdens of societal rituals and standards. We rarely indulge in activities which involve nature, exercise, hobbies, art or meditation.
Our parameters of success are flawed and so are the pursuits that we indulge in to achieve them. I’m not sure when we developed the understanding as a people that life is supposed to be a race rather than a continuum.
This feeling of an ongoing struggle has left no time for us to indulge in leisure-based activities and to look for short-term solutions for our long-term problems.
We try to find escape from our ailments through medications, while in most cases what our bodies and minds are actually demanding are lifestyle modifications. As physicians we are treating the impatience of patients rather than actual diseases.
Another important aspect in this regard is the fake standards of happiness set forth by social and electronic media. We choose our heroes through glamour and controversies, and quickly throw them to the ground once we are bored.
We are often so busy taking photographs of our enjoyable moments that we forget to actually enjoy and cherish those moments, in search of the perfect view for the camera.
This constant hyper stimulation of our neurons and hormones causes us to exist in a perpetual state of anxiety.
This anxiety has devastating effects on our physical health involving all organ systems of the human body; for which we seek help from medicines.
My main concern in this regard is our children, who are being brought up in this complicated environment of stress.
They have boundless potential to succeed as citizens of the free-world through this ongoing information revolution, yet they are stuck in a whirlpool of irrational entertainment-based content.
—The writer is Assistant Professor Public Health, Islamabad Medical and Dental College.
