If you are aware of your physical health but do not pay any attention to mental health, then the time has come to start focusing on your mental health as well. We are saying this because, according to a study published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, 1 in every 7 Indians in the country is suffering from severe mental illness and the figures are for the year 2017.
In this study of 200 million population suffering from mental illness, it is said that depression and anxiety are the most common mental illnesses and the number of people suffering from these 2 problems is increasing rapidly. This study has been done by ‘India State Level Diseases Burden Initiative’. In India, this study has been done on the basis of data from the year 1990 to 2017 i.e. 27 years. This report was released on Monday. This study says that about 19.7 or 200 million people of India are suffering from mental illness and this is 14.3 percent of our total population. Of these, 4.6 crore people were suffering from depression and 4.5 crore people were suffering from anxiety.
The main reason for depression and anxiety is stress, said Dr. Rajesh Sagar, professor of psychiatry at Stress AIIMS and the lead researcher of this study, stress is the main reason for both these problems. On the other hand, these two mental problems arise due to intimidation and bullying in children. Not only this, due to the changes in the social structure, mental illnesses are also increasing. Earlier there were joint families and people used to share their stress and troubles with family members and lighten their mind but now it is not possible in single family.
Middle-aged people suffer more from depression
Apart from this, it has been said in the study that middle-aged people are suffering from depression more which shows concern about growing population towards old age in India. It also said that depression is also related to suicide deaths in India. The contribution of mental disorders to the burden of total illness doubled between 1990 and 2017, indicating the need to implement an effective strategy to control this increased burden.
The pace of improvement and treatment is extremely slow,
Dr. Sagar further says, to reduce this burden, it is time to work with all partners at all levels to bring mental health to the fore. This study has revealed that the pace of improvement in the burden of childhood mental disorders is very slow. Least developed states of the country have conduct disorders that need to be properly investigated.
