Different age brings forth different challenges; and if we develop poor coping mechanisms an issue will manifest into a symptom, gradually progressing into an actual psychological disorder.
DR AKEELA P
During my college days I was desperately trying to fit in with the crowd, struggling with the question whether I am the black sheep of the family. While watching the French Movie “Amélie”, I had the epiphany that changed my perception forever – with every protagonist a narration would follow, the scenes would display each character’s unique tics, weird behaviours, and their flaws in a funny way. I finally understood that each one of us have these in our lives too but we carefully camouflage it hiding behind a mask.
It is estimated that About 1 in 4 adults suffer from diagnosable mental disorder in a given year and many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time varying in different intensity from mild-moderate-profound.
In today’s scenario people are much aware, and acquire knowledge of various psychological issues and mental health than compared to a decade ago; yet we have scratched only the surface of the complexities of a human behaviour, there are infinite personality assessments available, however none are able to capture the whole essence of a human existence -the reason being that we are ever evolving. Sometimes in a day our mood changes from being happy, content and grateful to being cynical, miserable and remorseful. We can’t help it since we are part of a system constantly interacting with our environment and its other cohabitants. As simple as a news on a tragic event could send us in a spiral low mood; then how is it relatively possible that we could expect that everyone should be happy and calm, having no challenges, only dead people can neither feel nor respond. As long as we are alive, constant reaction and reflection is a natural reflex, working as an automatic response to the things surrounding us.
Understanding the genesis of a psychological disorder
Our behaviour is complex; it is a resultant of a multi-variable interaction. We cannot associate any behaviour with a single casual factor. For instance “anger”, it could be because you had a parent suffering from anger issues and in turn you learnt it by observing, exposure to the peer group where anger was validated, or the cultural influence like in some African tribes where anger is accepted as a symbol of being masculine, or the brain itself produced high levels of norepinephrine a neurotransmitter responsible for fear and anger emotion that triggers “fight or flight” response. Ultimately when the genesis of a psychological issue itself is complex, the treatment for the following is not a one way track.
Life span and psychological problems
In my academic interaction with the students, I often ask them “Are you crying for the same reasons when you were in 5th grade?” the answer more likely is “no”, It seems silly right?, We could cry for a pencil, low marks, a friend refusing to play with us, etc. We outgrow them. But now, we cry for other reasons pertaining to our age group the following are some of the common issues we are likely to face
Adolescent: peer pressure, academic stress, conflict with parents, poor body image, substance abuse
Young adulthood: romantic relationship, career choice, job stress, EMI’s
Middle adulthood: Marital discord, concerns over our parents’ health, loss of a parent
Late adulthood: conflict with grown-up children, health, loss of a spouse, feeling of being neglected and obsessed about death
Different age brings forth various challenges, experiences and if we develop poor coping mechanisms an issue will manifest into a symptom, gradually progressing into an actual psychological disorder. We need to encounter our challenges as a threshold that we need to cross over with a resilient mind.
The approach of treating any psychological disorder, should be the same manner that we deal with any physiological illness, i.e., acknowledge the illness, normalize it, seek professional help, not by googling it, not indulging in self-diagnosis or assuming that a YouTube video cures the disease, a holistic approach is very crucial. One must take care of the food one consume, the web series we binge watch, cut down toxic people, if not reduce the interaction with them; do not control the symptoms but regulate it.
It is not the negative traits in us but rather a shadow self, present with us all the time, absorbing all that happens to us, rather than running away from it, walk with it and when you least expect it, healing starts to vibrate within you. Finally, you will be okay with not being okay.
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