World Mental Health Day is being observed today amid reports about an increasing number of people suffering from various mental illnesses – depression and pressure which are taking a heavy toll on their health.
The day is dedicated for generating awareness on mental health issues around the world so that such issues are taken care of.
If one’s mental health is affected by any factor, his illness will affect his domestic life, apart from creating concern for others around him. Life goes haywire for the mentally ill or depressed persons. Even, many fail to cooperate with the problems of daily life and take extreme steps like suicide.
Among the major causes of depression are work pressure, long hours of work, failure to remarkable achievements, and peer pressure.
Let’s look at the case of Chandranaryan Pati, who works in a private company with a handsome salary. However, Pati says that he has little time for relaxation or spending time with his family due to work pressure.
“Work for 12 hours or even more leaves one exhausted with little time to relax. There is no peace in life,” he observed.
Depression -A Potential Killer
According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report, 5651 people in Odisha committed suicide in 2021 for various reasons. Officials reports claim, that cases of mental illness and depression have been increasing particularly after the Covid pandemic.
In 2020-21, hospitals in the state treated 13, 258 mentally ill patients while their number rose to 17,158 in 2021-22. The number of such patients continued to rise to 21, 458 in 2022-23.
As for increasing cases of depression, Twin City Police Commissioner Soumendra Priyadarshi admitted that cases of suicide have certainly increased. However, there is no particular reason for depression, he said.
"Imminent cause may be stress which needs to be identified. It needs an analysis. Kota has reported 26 suicide cases this year. Here the stress is caused by fear of performance. In some cases, poverty has been a cause of suicide," said Priyadarshi.
Niranjan Mishra, Director of Public Health, observed that the gap between expectation and performance causes stress. The mentally ill people should be taken care of with proper medication.