The Time Is To Banish The Mental Health Issues Legally
Nations all over the world present numerous rights to their citizens. For instance, let’s discuss the basic rights i.e. The right to life, liberty, and personal security, The right to a fair trial, The right to equality and freedom from discrimination, freedom from torture and degrading treatment, freedom of belief, and religion, The right to equality before the law, Freedom of opinion, The right to privacy and the list includes many more.
But, here I would like to raise a question in front of you. Even after possessing multiple numbers of freedom and rights, we are still missing the most crucial one. According to me, the foremost right should be the ‘Right to Mental Peace and Wellness’. For those who are surprised to read this and wondering, “Ehh, why so?” let me have the honor to explain it to you.
The chief organ of our body is no doubt the “Brain”. If it tends to be in stress and agony then there is no way you can live your life in harmony. And, the problem doesn’t stop here, the cycle of this distress continues to affect others around us as well. Collectively, this huge chain carries the capability to destroy the whole world one by one.
Crux of the matter is the world is in dire straits and it’s so funny that we don’t even consider it. My question to all the high authorities and government is that ‘Why there is no right to staying mentally well and in peace?’, ‘Why even after so much development we still fail to understand the grave of our mental health?’, ‘Why the environmental issues are brought in light but not the mental health?’, ‘Why such a basic need is not given value?. ‘Why we just keep the topic of mental peace limited to debates and don’t do something concrete about it?. My list of ‘Whys’ is never-ending but I would like to show some mercy.
According to the reports of 2017, there were around 792 million people in the world who suffered from a mental health disorder. Blood-curdling isn’t it? It is, at least for me. Let’s talk about the factual data, 264 million suffer from Depression, 284 million from Anxiety disorders, around 46 million from Bipolar disorder, 16 million have Eating disorders (clinical anorexia & bulimia). Schizophrenia has its claws on 20 million people, 970 million suffer from any mental or substance use disorder. 107 million have Alcohol use disorder and 71 million have Drug use disorder (excluding alcohol). Imagine if in the year 2017 the numbers were so high what would be the present condition that too after the deadly COVID-19 situation.
There is a say, “Better late than never”, we are already running late. Mental issues have managed to make their place in society, it’s high we take stern action in the matter. Otherwise, the day is not far when the mental issues will be laughing at our funerals.