Mental Health and “Urbanites”

Mental health is paramount to the existence of a species. In the animal kingdom, the coming of a predator from a distance, when detected by the prey, leaves the prey to primarily two options and those are of either fight or flight. Considering that the wild animal has more of the primary instinct of survival than the urban ones, including us, the social animals, it will be fair to say that the animal knows which option to avail: fight or flight. In both the scenarios, if our little prey comes out alive onto the other side of the jungle, it requires a “shaking off” from him to release the tension which is a result of the situation he faced just now! Whether fighting and fleeing, the efforts put in and the accumulation of the stress hormones require a subsequent release as well. If the stressor remains in the system of the animal even after the threat is gone, it is detrimental to the health. Therefore, a “shake off” helps the animal to return to normal and carry on with its day taking the lessons yet not being alarmed each time the jungle makes a noise. 

When it comes to us, Homo Sapiens, the smartest animals on Planet Earth, honestly, we do not act even remotely smart. The eagerness to keep pursuing a goal and living in a threat-free environment (we do not fear being eaten up by a wild animal as our ancestors living in the stone age did so we are fairly safe with no life threatening situations to come our way!) perhaps has diminished our instincts to reset ourselves. Worse still, we do not even realise the piling up of the stress until one day when the physical body shows markers in the form of medical tests and scans. We do not reset our body regularly which in turn would regulate our health, both mental and physical because one relates and impacts the other!

We recently conducted a survey with 150 women (as project for the Women’s Day, 2022). Highlighting our observations of the survey, we must highlight that the awareness of mental health and the need to address it is still in its teething phase. Only when I am aware of my health is when I can address it. Easy, right? Awareness holds the key to optimising it. Once I am aware, I have the option to take care of it and bring it back to an  efficient modus operandi. In the survey we observed that only 8% of the women ever reached out to a psychologist. Is it to say that only those 8% faced a situation where they felt the need to reach out to a professional? What would happen in your organisation, if experts who are held to be significant ones are not included and one person carries on the project without the need of a project manager, a techie, support staff and an IT department? Possible? Perhaps… Feasible? Don’t think so! 

Therefore, it is time that we “normalise” our visits to a mental health expert just the way we feel absolutely normal going to our Project Manager and highlighting the expected delays that may defer our date of the “go live”.