Mental health is the most ignored attribute when it comes to Indian house hold women, my mom being one of them and she excelled at being the Best Mother. It’s purely because the word MENTAL is disregarded. The happy Indian Family never feels the need to introspect what our mind is deprived of. We were a family of 4 until my sister and I got married and we became 6. I now also have a lovely Son.
We as an Indian Family have always worked and thrived very hard for sticking together, the other side of the world always frowns if sons stay with parents after Their 20’s or thier Marriage, but the most fascinating truth is, It’s indeed a beautiful concept of generations staying together under one roof. But we aren’t here to discuss this…… My anger and concern is I wished we spoke to our Mom on what bothered her beyond the cliff , before she left us on 26th June 2020.
It all started around 30 years ago when my Mom was detected with Diabetes & Blood pressure issue while Conceiving my younger sister. Since then medicines have hello’d her more than people. Diabetes effects almost 17% of population in India. I want you to read me till the end, stick around because you could easily put urself in the place I always was since My Mother was struggling with her Sanity ( MENTAL HEALTH & STRESS )
- We never TALK to our moms after a certain Time & Age . Forget Effective communication atleast call them to say a Hi . Chatting with her every day will not only keeps an existing relationship strong, it will also help a frayed relationship get stronger.TALKING always helps to cope, help, identify, solve any problems and make each other feel better. ISNT SOMETIMES JUST LISTENING TO HER IMPORTANT ?
- Respect & Appreciate them for everything. Respecting her will boost and satisfy her inert most emotion . Listen very attentively to her needs, desires and concerns and show by acting on them. There are countless things our Mothers do for us and we will never be able to pay back for her favors, the least we could do, is shower unconditional Love & Care.
- Give her all the TIME they need with their Grandchildren. Spending time with Grandparents fosters Intergenerational family connection. This UNBOLTS the door for grandparents and grandchildren to learn and maintain a healthy and safe relationship with people who differ greatly in Age. Many lessons can be learned along the way of forging this special relationship.
- Rice — The staple of South India -We need to get this straight up right that our diets need a makeover. There’s no denying that South India loves its Rice. But there are enormous studies that warn us to use caution while piling our plates with the refined version of this staple grain. Over 40 per cent of the people in India are Diabetic. Ever wondered why ??Some doctors say that this is because the Indian body is prone to Diabetes, just like some cars may guzzle more fuel or give you less mileage, because that’s simply how they’re built. Sedentary living and bad eating habits have only made the problem dramatically worse. However, a recent and disturbing study conducted by Harvard University has established that consuming just one cup of white rice (polished rice) everyday can put you at risk to diabetes, regardless of your nationality or whether you have a family history of the disease. Since rice is our staple food, the implications of the study can have a great long-term impact on the way India eats.
- Your Diabetologist never wants you to heal – because that’s what they have learned to preach. Before you jump the chair off, it’s true. To understand , we all know that insulin is released everytime we eat. Insulin helps control blood glucose levels by signaling the liver, muscle and fat cells to take in glucose from the blood. Insulin therefore helps cells to take in glucose to be used for energy. If the body has sufficient energy, insulin signals the liver to take up glucose and store it as glycogen. All they want you to do is eat 5 meals a day, raise your blood sugar , raise insulin- supress the sugar by giving you medicines or insulin injections and there goes the never ending never happening healing cycle forever .
- Body demands more Carbs & Sugar – The spike is followed by a sharp dip an hour or two later, which can leave you craving more sugar and/or make you feel sluggish. This is why you often feel sleepy after having a donut with your afternoon brew, or why you crave sweet treats even when you’re full from the high carb dish you’ve just had for lunch.
The alternative Best Approach – What happens when you don’t eat any carbs? It’s estimated that when fueled by carbohydrates, the brain needs roughly 110–145 grams of glucose (from the breakdown of carbs you eat) per day in order to function optimally. Most people who follow a typical modern-day high-carb diet eat roughly twice as many carbs as their brains use, providing them with an ample glucose supply.What happens if you eat far fewer than 110 grams of carbs per day, or even no carbs at all? Does the brain starve? Absolutely not!Your liver and muscles store glucose in the form of glycogen. Although the amount varies from person to person, an average-sized man weighing 154 lbs (70 kg) stores about 100 grams of glycogen in his liver.
When you stop eating carbs for several hours, liver glycogen is broken down into glucose and released into the bloodstream to prevent blood glucose from dropping too low. Although far more glycogen is stored in your muscles than in your liver, it remains in the muscles to meet their energy needs and can’t be released into the bloodstream to raise blood glucose.
After going 24–48 hours without any carbs, glycogen levels become depleted and insulin levels decrease.
At this point, the liver steps up its production of water-soluble compounds known as ketones, created by the breakdown of fatty acids. Ketones can be made from either the fat you eat or your body’s fat stores. The resulting ketones can cross the blood-brain barrier to provide the brain with an additional source of energy.This means there’s another fuel source available for the brain when the body runs low on stored carbohydrates. This is very beneficial for people with Diebetes to reverse its effect
Humans don’t need any Dietary Carbohydrates to thrive because the Brain can function much efficiently on Ketones.
Hence The 4 most important thing which are the reasons for High Mental stress illness which I’m trying to point out below are intricate for us to identify, help, support & care for our Mothers if she suffers from it .
- Healthy Food & Well-being – health is the most important , My mom never learned from her doctors to control her diabetis and hogged on high carb diet. The sad part is diabetes never stops at itself , it opens the entrance to various cardiovascular problems, including coronary artery disease with chest pain (angina), heart attack, stroke and narrowing of arteries (atherosclerosis). If you have diabetes, you’re more likely to have heart disease or stroke. My Mom suffered from mild infarction.
2. Emotional Intelligence – A happy & Loving Family around builds a Strong family relationships and is a source of comfort, guidance, and strength that you can draw on in times of stress. Likewise, they provide a sense of belonging and unconditional love you are not likely to find anywhere else.There’s nothing like family. The people we’re related to by blood and marriage are expected to be our closest allies, our greatest sources of love and support. Too often, however, our interactions with family are filled with misunderstanding and resentment, bickering and badgering. Family is where our first and strongest emotional memories are made, and that’s where they keep appearing. And this is why emotional intelligence (EQ) succeeds where other efforts at family harmony fail.
3. Communication is incredibly a powerful element in the family because it puts you in control of your relationships with parents and children, siblings, in-laws and extended family. When you know how you feel, you can’t be manipulated by other’s emotions, nor can you blame family conflict on everyone else. “Most of the techniques for improving family relationships are therefore centered on communicating your feelings to those you care about, as close relationships are centered around feelings”.Without this emotional intimacy, family contact becomes a burden, because no one is comfortable spending that much time with a stranger. If you want your family members to know and accept each other lovingly, you have to begin with your own emotional honesty and openness.
3. Generation Conflict – We live in a era of Generations living together, we Indians take pride but where there is more than 1 person, conflicts are bound to happen. Our Moms are already a victim of sufferings from socio-political and economic changes, and most of the times, neglect by thier children in a world of global culture focussed on material life thriving for success and personal ease only. We have to agree we are becoming more intolerant for those who are weak, different or difficult- which are our old parents ( Moms Especially ) and we always have to understand and give the leverage and focus more on the sufferings of our parents than on those of ours.