The 10th of October is a world Mental Health Day. Mental health remains one of the branches of health that is poorly understood by the society at large.
Only a few mental health practitioners understand the true impact of mental health in general, how much more to a random person who hasn’t studied mental health.
In this article I will talk about this year’s theme which is: “Mental health is a universal human Right”.
What’s so special about mental health
Everyone is affected by mental health, it can either be directly if you suffer from mental health yourself or indirectly if you know someone who has a mental health condition.
There are many mental health conditions that exist and affect people differently. The most common conditions are:
- Mood disorders: these are conditions like Bipolar and Mania
- Depressive disorders: Major depression is the most common form of depressive disorders, others include acute Grief and acute stress disorder.
- Schizophrenia
- Substance Induced Psychosis: seen in people who abuse alcohol and other recreational drugs.
There are many more mental conditions that a person can suffer from. This day is observed to raise awareness and educate people on how to treat those with mental conditions and how to accept them.
There are people who discriminate persons with mental disorder, especially in the work place. Some people end up being retrenched at work just because they suffer from depression which may be caused by toxic work environment in the first place.
Mental Health Rights
As a society we have an important role to play in ensuring that anyone that displays atypical behaviour or who is known to suffer from a certain mental condition is not discriminated against.
Everyone including those with mental conditions have a right to:
- Good quality care: like normal beings, all the basic rights of people apply to them too
- Right to inclusion in the community: in some developing countries, they isolate people with delusions and chain them in churches or bushes. That does not help them at all and is inhumane way to treat a person.
- Right to life
- Right to choose who should treat them: there are some mental conditions that do not impair judgement in which the person still has a right to choose who should treat them.
Mental health in the Workplace
Adults spend most of their life in the workplace.
Sometimes it is the toxic work environment, whether it’s the boss that is too bossy or there is a conflict among colleagues in the same rank.
It is difficult to go to work when you have an issue with where you work, and you should find ways to fix it a soon as possible because you will spend most of your life at work.
There are three options that you have if you encounter an issue that negatively affect your mental health:
- You either fix the issue by reporting it to the relevant person that should attend to it or,
- You leave the place that has an issue by asking to be placed elsewhere or quit the job to look for another job with better working conditions.
- Or you can simple accept the place as it is knowing that it cannot be changed.
It is also recommended that all work places, especially mentally demanding jobs like Law enforcement, Military, Fireman Services and others to have a Psychologist or therapist that be able to offer mental health services to the workers to ensure that they do not become negatively affected by their job.
If you feel like your mental health is not in good shape, it is your responsibility to take initial step of seeking help before things get worse.
Chronic stress can lead to medical conditions like Tension Headache and even Hypertension. It can also cause Migraine for some people.
According to World Health Organization, about 300 Million people suffer from depression worldwide and the numbers are increasing given the wars and pandemics that we are facing recently.
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