During the Mental Health Awareness Week, The Quint is committed to talking about common misconceptions around mental illness and to bringing out the fact that depression, OCD, anxiety along with about 200 other forms of mental illness, are treatable.
But first comes acceptance and de-stigmatisation. If you missed our live chat about mental health, mental illness and the stigma that surrounds these issues, watch it here. We had an interesting panel comprising of Vasuda Arora (change facilitator and therapist), Shilpa Aggarwal (Head of Psychiatry at mPower), Rachna Iyer & Rohan Sabharwal (founders of Crayon Impact, a creative forum addressing mental health) and Varun Gwalani (a slam poet, author and someone dealing with OCD)
The key learnings of this discussion are:
- Each case of mental illness is unique and requires an unbiased way of dealing with the condition and its severity.
- If you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom, talk about it with family, friends and also seek professional help if you think you need it.
- Stigma is engrained in each one of us, as is some level of one form of mental illness or another. Take the first step by accepting the problem.
- Don’t judge. All that a mentally ill individual needs is empathy.
- A Mental illness is treatable, just like diabetes or cancer.
You can reach out to our panelists here:
Rachna Krishna Iyer (Co Founder Crayon Impact) - rachnakrishna.iyer@gmail.com
Vasuda Arora (Change facilitator and therapist) - everythingyoucanbe@gmail.com (9920397166)
Rohan Sabharwal (Co-founder of Crayon Impact, dealing with Bipolar Disorder)- rohansabharwal@gmail.com
Shilpa Aggarwal (Head of Psychiatry at mPower)- shilpa.aggarwal@mpowerminds.com
Varun Gwalani (slam poet, author, dealing OCD) - gwalanivarun@gmail.com
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