Yesterday, social media was abuzz with the news of a woman’s tweet about her boss’s amazingly positive response to her leave application. What’s striking was that the woman employee was asking a leave to take care of her mental health. The tweet was dated back to June suddenly garnered a lot of public attention and was retweeted for about 12,000 times. The positive response from the boss and people acknowledging it is a welcome move. It is a sign that people have now started giving importance to mental health along with physical health.
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The tweet was posted by a woman named Madalyn Parker, a Michigan web developer at live-chat platform Olark. She had depression and anxiety complaints. Instead of curtaining her problems, she decided to open up about it to her boss. In a social setup, where we’re still struggling to figure out the mental issues, this occurrence speaks good volumes about the changing scenario.
While we’re rejoicing that there are bosses like Ben Congleton in organisations, our country India is lagging big time when it comes to mental health. Let alone having a proper setup of sick leaves for mental issues, we’ve failed detrimentally to acknowledge the mental health at the first place. However, the healthcare authorities have made a contribution in a bid to curb discrimination and apathy towards mental patients, the mental healthcare act, 2017 was brought action.
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Let’s talk about depression
Many Bollywood celebrities have come forward to address mental health issues and creating an air of familiarity about it. A couple of years ago, Bollywood’s leading actress Deepika Padukone became vocal about her depression and urged people to be more sympathetic towards people battling anxiety. A shocking data by WHO reveals that over 300 million people are battling depression. This number have shot up by 18%, narrating the terrible status quo of mental health in our world.
Superstar Shah Rukh Khan also revealed how he battled depression even when he was at the pinnacle of his film career. His IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders was slammed by fans for losing nine matches in a row.
“I cried myself to bed. The negativity around me made me sit in the bathroom and cry for hours. A couple of times my kids saw me crying and I didn’t like it. We lost nine matches in a row. I didn’t cry because we were losing. I know it’s a game and we can lose. I cried because of the comments about me the next morning. I love sports and I have played under-19 cricket and know much more about cricket than most of the people passing comments on me.”
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Why don’t we talk? What makes us so mum about something so natural? Do you gag yourself when you’re suffering from a viral fever? Then why to subdue your voice when its your brain who’s not feeling well? It’s normal; as normal as catching cold. If we talk gumption, our brain is an organ, and just like any other organ in our body, our brain can sometimes fail to function up to the mark. That’s what happens when you suffer from depression. It is curable, with love, care and needed medical intervention.
We hope the present condition of mental health awareness in India improves with time.
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