Generally,
the term Health triggered us as physically fit and free from disease condition.
But do you think only the physical health reflects your overall health? What
about your emotions, feelings, mood, thoughts ?
Yes, in this article I am going to talk about our mental health and its
scenario in context of Nepal.
Mental
health is an important component of health that concerns about your feelings,
mood, thoughts and emotions. It deals with how we feel, think and act. You
should be mentally stable and fit in order to maintain your whole body healthy.
Without mental health there is no true physical health. WHO stresses the mental health as “A state of
well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope
with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is
able to make A contribution to her or his community”.
In
Nepalese context there are still mental health related myths, stigmas and
taboos that are directly affecting the individual’s growths, personalities and
thoughts. “The children do not face the mental health problems”, “Mental
problem is a form of intellectual disability or brain damage (Dimag Khuskiyo), “People with mental
problem are dangerous and violent” are the common myths that can be found in
Nepalese societies. And these myths directly affecting those people who has a
mental problem and that ultimately leading to the serious problems such as depression and suicide. Are
there stigmas has scientific proof? Why our society is still believing these
nonsense things? If not, why are we
staying silently then? These myths should be broken. For this now we have to
speak about mental health, we should talk about it, we should spread the
awareness about mental health and we should listen the voice of those peoples
who are suffering from mental problems.
In
other hand, the content of mental health is not included in the formal
educational curriculum for the school students too. The organization working
regarding the mental health is also found to be less. That also reflects the
scenario of mental health in Nepal. We can see the how the students are going
through the mental health problems especially stress and anxiety. According to
Manandhar (2019) the prevalence of stress among the undergraduate students is
75%. The major stressors were Academic related stressor, project work, group
activities related, teaching and learning related and social related stressors.
And these stressors are directly influences in their performance matrix,
thoughts and growths. Are their such problems are addressing by teachers and
parents? There should be mentally healthy environment in the school, college,
home and community and those mental health problem should be considered by
teachers and parents in order to encourage students’ performance, skills,
positive actions, thoughts and growth.
In
developing countries like Nepal poverty also becomes one of the main stressor
among the peoples. The low economic status always makes them stressed and
tensioned. So in the context of Nepal the mental health should be focused more.
Reference:
Manandhar,
SA (2019). Stressors and the levels of stress among the undergraduate in
Kathmandu. Nepal Medical College Journal
21 (1), 21-25.
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