Ruby Dhal's Story:

 

Mental illness isn’t an entity whose existence is dependent on your recognition of it. Where, if you say that it’s there then it’s there and if you say that the illness doesn’t exist then it doesn’t. Mental illness exists within a human being regardless of the recognition or lack of recognition of it.

Take depression as an example.

Often we find it hard to believe that a person, or even we ourselves, could be depressed. The reason for this is our preconceived notions about pain. We think that the threshold of pain is the same for everyone. So, if a certain line is crossed for how much pain I can bare then the same should be the case for you. If I can go through certain things in life and not have suicidal thoughts or feel negative towards life then how can someone else? This is completely wrong. Every single person’s threshold of pain differs. We vary in our reaction to our experiences and the way in which they have an impact on our minds. This is one of the main reasons why people who are depressed feel so alone – because their family and friends don’t understand why the person’s mind is reacting in such a way to what according to them is perhaps minimal pain.

We need to break social prejudices regarding the lack of importance of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders and so on. We need to accept that people respond differently to their experiences and we need to see life from their perspective in order to support them. I too have had firsthand experience of seeing someone close to me have depression throughout his life. The only thing that he needed was for someone to hold his hand and tell him that
they understood. That they would be there for him. And that it was okay to accept that he was experiencing a mental condition. That is when his journey to healing began.

And that is where our role begins. They require for us, as their friends, family members and partners to tell them that we are there for them no matter what. And that we will help them get through this. We need to break down every social taboo and we need to change our delimitating responses to those who admit to having a mental illness. We need to change. Not those who suffer.