“Getting Closer To The Mega Project Problem”

The problem that I’m focused upon is The Awareness of Mental Health Problems. On the top of our heads, we say that Mental Health tells us a lot about our well being. How do we cope with normal stresses in our life, how productive we are and how are we giving our contribution to society.

This reason is close to me and I have been adamant about working for it because I have actually seen people who either don’t recognize that they have a mental problem or if they identify, they hide in their shells and don’t talk about it. I’ve seen people whose studies, jobs and relations with their close ones are ruined by this problem. I’ve seen people being rejected for having a different mind or less patience. Sometimes, we do know that our friend or a family member is going through this problem but we fail to accept them. We unintentionally criticize them for being themselves. We fail to provide them the environment where they feel accepted and get the hope to improve themselves.

Vastness of Mental Disorders

Different Types of Mental Health Disorders:

While researching more on this topic, I realized that Mental Health problems aren’t just restricted to anxiety, stress, depression, it is a really vast field and these are the common terms we know. Let me give a few examples:

Bipolar Disorder:

People who have bipolar disorder can have periods in which they feel overly happy and energized and other periods of feeling very sad, hopeless, and sluggish. In between those periods, they usually feel normal. You can think of the highs and the lows as two “poles”of mood, which is why it’s called “bipolar”disorder.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD):

A person with OCD generally:

• Can’t control his or her thoughts or behaviors, even when those thoughts or behaviors are recognized as excessive
• Spends at least 1 hour a day on these thoughts or behaviors
• Doesn’t get pleasure when performing the behaviors or rituals, but may feel brief relief from the anxiety the thoughts cause.
• Experiences significant problems in their daily life due to these thoughts or behaviors.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event.

It is natural to feel afraid during and after a traumatic situation. Fear triggers many split-second changes in the body to help defend against danger or to avoid it. This “fight-or-flight” response is a typical reaction meant to protect a person from harm. Nearly everyone will experience a range of reactions after trauma, yet most people recover from initial symptoms naturally. Those who continue to experience problems may be diagnosed with PTSD. People who have PTSD may feel stressed or frightened, even when they are not in danger.

A few more examples

Awareness Through Social Media:

I was searching for ways as to how I can effectively contribute to this. Social Media, when used in the right way can be very effective. So, I browsed through my socials and many pages which were contributing to mental health awareness. Some of them were practicing Psychologists while some were just people who had been going through the same problem and wanted to spread some awareness about it.

This page is run by Psychologists and their website is also provided.

This person also has some background in Psychology but isn’t practicing it yet.

This person is totally creative and spreads positivity through his art. He has no background in Psychology. He has read books and listened to podcasts and then draw whatever he has learned as shares on his socials.

I saw that these people got really good responses and some of them weren’t even Psychologists. They have a vision to create awareness and they are doing it through creativity, design and by giving a sense of positivity to people through words.

My Contribution:

I am not a Psychology major. I just have the passion of showing people the bright side and helping them find their positivity. These are the few points which made me so firm on thinking about this problem as my Mega Project:

- Mental Health awareness is a vast field and I think that many of the people don’t even recognize that they are suffering from this.

- People who do recognize are afraid to come out.

- Who come out can sometimes cannot pay a heavy amount to Psychologists or buy medicines.

- Who can pay all of that sometime, need a friendly environment or get to know people other than their psychologist who will listen to their problems and they will get to hear other people’s stories too.

I have to take a start. There is this force inside me that is pushing me to find ways to initiate this awareness. There are a lot of ways I can do it. They are listed as follows:

• Talk to some Psychology students and lay down my plan in front of them and get their review.
• Set up a Social media account dedicated solely for this purpose and gather people to create awareness and provide them the opportunity to speak out their problems.
• I can be a part of the organization which is an already established support group and learn from them by working alongside them.
• With the help of some people, set up a support group. In the beginning, it will mainly consist of people who are around me and with their help I can spread my word and expand my community. I am more drawn towards this idea because here I can talk to people in person. Get to see how much they are affected in a negative manner and if they are getting healed by being in the support group. I will be able to provide them with a friendly and comfortable background where they can pour their hearts out. Whatever happens in the support group, will stay in the support group.