Psychiatry

Psychiatric Treatments: Mental Illness Is A Stigma In Our Society

Although our society and its system are getting better equipped to compensate for mental health, somewhere, mental health stigma is slowly affecting the lives of millions. If you see your near and dear ones going through the same, don’t think twice to visit a psychiatric hospital in Kolkata.

What Is Stigma?

A stigma is a destructive, negative, and unfair social attitude directed towards a person or a group highlighting their weakness or shortcoming and shaming that person or group for a perceived deficiency. 

What Is Mental Health Stigma?

When society disapproves or places shame on individuals or a group of people who live with mental illnesses such as anxiety, neurodevelopmental disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorder, elimination disorder, sexual dysfunction, personality disorder, dissociative disorder, and depression, the disapproval or shame can directly come from near and dear ones too.

What Are The Causes Of Mental Illness Stigma?

  • Lack of education
  • Lack of awareness
  • Lack of perception
  • Fear of people with mental illness

Negative Effects Of Stigma Towards Mental Health

According to statistical data, every nine out of ten people with mental illness experience small-mindedness, suffer discrimination and face stigma. 

If a person with a mental illness faces stigma, it becomes difficult for them to adjust to society, normalise their thoughts that ultimately hinder their early recovery. Below are some negative effects of stigma towards mental health:

  • Self-doubt
  • Self-isolation 
  • Hopelessness
  • Increased psychiatric symptoms
  • Reduced likelihood to stick to the treatment
  • Reluctance to seek help and treatment
  • Lack of understanding by family, friends, loved ones, coworkers
  • Lower self-esteem
  • Harassment, bullying, and physical violence
  • Reduction in opportunities in workplace school, discrimination at work
  • Trouble finding a place to stay
  • Unemployment
  • Worsening symptoms

A study was conducted in 2017 revolving around the idea of mental illness stigma. It involved around 200 individuals with mental illness over two years. It was found that self-stigma is inversely proportional to recovery. Once the self-stigma gets stronger, it becomes difficult to recover from that mental illness.

Treatments

The main responsibility lies in dealing with the people suffering mental health stigma and encouraging them to overcome it. That’s where the necessity of proper counselling shows up. To get the best psychiatric treatment in Kolkata, you should visit any psychiatric hospital in Kolkata.

Now let’s see what the ways to end mental health stigma are: 

Education:  As stated earlier, lack of education, awareness, and perception can cause mental health stigma. So, it’s our utmost responsibility to encourage mass education. You have to not only educate yourself but also your children about mental health. Thus, educating the public about the true nature of mental illness through awareness campaigns is extremely necessary. 

Share Real-Life Examples: Survivors sharing their stories of overcoming their mental health problems is important.

Be A Good Listener: Listen to people and support them with mental health concerns.

Confronting Sufferers About Mental Illness And Its Recovery: We have to make the sufferers learn about mental illness and understand that recovery is possible.

Psychotherapy And Counselling: Psychotherapy is also known as talk therapy. Proper counselling and listening to their point of view are extremely important. 

Medications: In the worst-case scenario, there is no other substitute than medications like antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication, antipsychotic medication, mood stabilisers. 

Don’t start any treatment, therapy, or medication on your own; always consult with psychiatrists to get the best psychiatric treatment in Kolkata.

Conclusion

Mental health is a necessary wealth. You should always prioritise your mental health. In case you are confused about where to start, you should take proper counselling from https://www.ilshospitals.com/, which is one of the best psychiatric hospitals in Kolkata.

Psychiatry

Are You Stressed Or Depressed? Let’s Dive Deeper

Stress is often mistaken as depression and depression is often thought to be stress. In today’s fast-paced world, more and more people are getting diagnosed with stress and depression.

As per psychiatrists practising in best hospitals in Kolkata, depression is a loss of interest in things and a feeling of constant sadness. Stress can either be emotional or mental and can be triggered by multiple factors. For instance, students becoming stressed out before their final exams and being cheery once the exams get over is a perfect example of stress.

Depression is another concept that requires our undivided attention. Chronic stress can become depression. There are many people with signs of clinical depression but unfortunately, they do not get the help they need due to various reasons. There’s a stigma attached to depression which we must remove from our society. It’s because of this stigma many patients do not seek therapy or get professional help in spite of showing signs of depression.

So how do signs of stress and depression differ?

Signs of stress

  • Problems in concentration
  • Poor memory
  • Overeating
  • Anxiety Anger issues
  • Difficulty doing daily activities.

Signs of depression

  • Constant feeling of sadness and hopelessness
  • Lack of motivation in doing anything
  • Undereating or overeating
  • Sleeping more or less than normal
  • Memory problem
  • Frustration and anger
  • Demotivation
  • Disinterest in everything
  • Suicidal thoughts.

If you are stressed out, take a break and try to relax a bit. In the case of depression, seek professional help. Visit a good psychiatrist and get medical therapy. Depression is not something to be taken lightly or ignored. Your mental health is equally important as your physical health. Yes, life is possible after depression. ILS Hospitals in Kolkata and Agartala will help you in every way possible when you’re on the journey to overcome depression.

Psychiatry

10 signs that indicates your child might have autism

In simple words, Autism (Autism Spectrum Disorder) is a neurological spectrum disorder in which the person lacks basic communication (both verbal and non-verbal) skills and social skills. There is no obvious reason behind autism but it is believed by many psychiatrists that ASD in children happens due to heredity, genetic disorders and deformity in the brain structure.

Children show signs of ASD after age 1 or 2 so it’s important for the parents to observe their child’s strange signs. The signs that might indicate that your child is autistic are as follows:

  • Prefers to always stay alone: It’s very odd for a child to prefer being alone than being in the company of other children. Autistic children live in their own world and does not know how to make friends and socially interact with people.

  • Inflexible nature: If your child follows a strict routine even at such a tender age, there is nothing to be proud of because it is a warning sign of ASD. Children with autism religiously follow their fixed schedule and have difficulty while dealing with even the most minor changes in their routine.

  • Repetitive behaviors: Your child may indulge in repetitive behaviors if he or she suffers from autism. The repetitive behaviors include- repeating words or phrases, lining up toys, incessant rocking, staring at lights, twirling, watching moving objects and so on.

  • Does not like physical affection: If your child does not like to be cuddled or even given a pat on the back, or be embraced when upset, it may indicate autism disorder.

  • Disinterested, unaware and unresponsive: A very unusual sign of autism is no eye contact which is seriously worrying for many parents. If your child always seems detached from the world and does not respond to you at all and appears to you deaf, chances are your child has autism.

  • Robot-like personality: Observe whether your child speaks in a flat robot-like tone with no emotions, has atypical posture and if walks on tiptoes.

  • Obsessive behavior: If your child has an obsession and special interest for certain topics and always craves for precise factual information, it can be a sign of ASD. OCD (Over- Compulsive disorder) and Autism go hand in hand so do watch for such signals and talk to a child psychiatrist.

  • Highly unemotional:Autistic children do not show even the basic human emotion in their speech, facial expressions and do not understand anyone’s feelings nor can relate to them. They may look aloof and cold to the entire world but the simple fact remains that they are poor at expressing themselves.

  • Self-harming behavior: Notice if your child practice self-injurious behavior like headbanging, self-scratching, hair pulling and face or head-slapping. Self-harm behavior is harmful and requires medical attention so consult a paediatric psychiatrist if your child physically harms him/herself.

  • Meltdowns: If your child has frequent meltdowns, it can make your life troublesome. There is a difference between normal tantrums and autistic meltdowns, so do not confuse the two and seek professional help, if needed.

Thus, if you notice the above-mentioned signs in your child, consider consulting a child psychiatrist without any delay. We, at ILS Hospitals, have trained and compassionate psychiatrists who will provide your child with the supportive care and counseling needed to better his or her life.