World Mental Health Day: Some Thoughts and Experiences

Hello My Lovely Readers,

I don’t know where to begin to be honest. Mental Health is one topic which is so close to my heart, not because I am a trained psychologist or a psychiatrist. I am just another girl in this whole wide world who like millions of people have faced mental health issues and my attachment to this topic comes from lived experiences. My struggle with my mental health has taught me to be more compassionate towards others, it has made me read the signs when people feel low or depressed, it has made me more self aware and more than anything it has made me want to learn more about mental health and do something in this field so that I can make people feel that they are not alone in this struggle. When the pandemic started off in India, somewhere around March, in Mid- April, I read the first post on Instagram that talked about how this pandemic is going to affect the mental health of the people and then I started reading academic papers about it and the projections were disturbing enough. Then recently I had started doing art in lockdown and there was Dr. Bhavesh Kathiriya who asked me to sketch something on Mental Health specifically and then it was just his little push and I started doing a full fledged series of sketches on Mental Health on Social Media which people could relate to and identify with and I didn’t reach too many people through my series but I got a couple of messages saying that they can really feel the art and my art saved them. And making difference to just one or two lives was enough for me.

Later on, I connected with one of my professors Dr. Keerty Nakray who taught me in my PhD classes and with her help I did a small project on Mental Health in the Times of Pandemic where I took interviews of some people and did a visual analysis of my sketches and that was one of the most enriching experiences for me because it helped me connect with people facing mental health struggles and also professionals who are helping such people. I tried to get my work published so that it could reach people and would be of some help but then I was facing an ethical dilemma which was that since I am not from the field of psychology and psychiatry, how credible is my work because it comes from a standpoint of lived experiences only so therefore, today on World Mental Health Day I have decided to share some of the key insights from my personal work on Mental Health in the Times of the Pandemic and then it is followed by stories of people who closely connect with the topic of Mental Health and have something to say. This post might get a little long to read but I am sure it will be worth it.

Mental Health in the Times of the Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

Research questions:

1. How do people define mental health?
2. How people facing mental health issues respond?
3. How pandemic and lockdown is impacting the mental health scenario?

Consolidated Findings and Discussions

People define mental health as something very personal. Their definitions differ and that is because of their understanding of it based on their real life experiences and their exposure.

While there are several factors affecting mental health, broadly they can be categorized as internal and external factors or individual or community factors and some of these factors are in individual’s control while the rest are not and there comes the concept of resilience on how one deals with unfavourable situations and factors.

Self awareness and self realizations have come up as major concepts in coping with mental health. If one is self aware about his mental health issues that is considered positive mental health and being aware also helps in employing the coping strategies effectively.
Lori Gottlieb in her book Maybe You Should Talk To Someone quotes “I try to wrap my mind around this paradox: Self Sabotage as a form of control. If I screw up my life, I can engineer my own death rather than have it happen to me. If I stay in a doomed relationship, if I mess up my career, if I hide in fear instead of facing what’s wrong with my body, I can create a living death but the one where I call the shots” is a classic example of how control is an important aspect. Even though here is context is of self sabotage but having control over one’s own life gives a sense of achievement and helps in coping.

Pandemic and lockdown has impacted the mental health of the people as there is a sense of loss of time, businesses and stability. Pandemic has brought with it the inevitable lockdown and due to that, there is a lot of uncertainty, the businesses are shut, people have fear of losing their jobs, savings are drying out and income is not there, and in lockdown people are locked with each other, while family is often a source of support but sometimes, not having personal space leads to conflict which may lead to deterioration of mental health and sometimes our families can be toxic to us as well so one needs to take that into account while analyzing how pandemic has affected mental health.

People often shy away from taking professional help due to stigma attached to it and there is a tendency of label avoidance. Even seeking help has its own problems such as not finding the right therapist.

Coping strategies are different for all. While there may be some universally accepted strategies such as mindfulness, meditation and physical activity, people know what works best for them and try to do that. In the book Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson, the author uses humor as a coping mechanism, she tries to make fun of every terrible situation in her life, Matt Haig in his book Reasons to Stay Alive started using writing and journaling as a coping mechanism. One of the participants used painting to deal with panic attacks while I have used sketches as coping mechanism. Coping strategies work only when one is self aware about what works for them and what does not.

Social media has been known to affect the mental health of the people but it has been looked in the positive light. My initial hypothesis was that social media impacts the mental health negatively but based on the interviews I have taken I have found that people view it in a different light, it’s the screen time that worries them not the content on the social media. One has control over what to consume and what not to consume.

Sketches that I have drawn in the time of pandemic have helped me in coping and also connect with the community that faces and connects with mental health issues on a deeper level. They have helped in spreading positivity and awareness about mental health and destigmatizing the act of taking help in a very small way.

Following you can see the glimpses of some of the sketches and my interpretation of them:

This sketch highlights that a person’s heart is broken and he is trying to hold it all together with a bunch of safety pins. There is tornado drawn at the end which highlights the turbulence and instability the person feels. The words on the side describe how mental health is an internal problem and not many people around you will realize that you are sick because it is not something that is visible like a runny nose. It describes mental health issues in a negative context when it uses the term a head full of darkness. Here the intention of drawing this sketch was to portray how sometimes people facing mental health issues fail to take care of themselves but they are so fragile and barely keeping things together. It touches upon the idea of self awareness about your mental health to be able to take care of your own self.

The girl in the sketch is looking inwards while she has a huge cloud of thoughts hovering over her. Overthinking is the process of constantly analyzing and anguishing over one’s thoughts. It may include rumination, in which an individual is stuck mentally rehashing their past or present decisions and/or actions. Many a times whenever a person who is overthinking shares his/her thoughts they are dismissed and people tend to say some of the insensitive things like “Get over it” as quoted above in the sketch but instead one should be empathetic and say things like “Your thoughts are valid” because it is a powerful statement and it helps the individual going through the issue of overthinking and makes him/her feel a little less alone.

In many of the books on Mental Health, it has been mentioned that your depression and anxiety lies to you and often it appears that your mental health issues are bigger than you are as portrayed by the monster of anxiety in the sketch but that’s not really true. They exist and they seem very real but humans can cope, they have the strength and they just need to tap into it. This sketch again emphasizes on importance of self awareness about one’s own mental health issues and speaks about emotional resilience. Breathing plays a key role in calming down as mentioned in the previous sketch as well and it’s because when a person focuses on his breathing he is becoming self aware and his attention is on his “being”.

Pandemic is a tough time and also it was observed that there was a narrative going around that you have to productive during this time, it’s not true. The times are tough and one needs to take care of themselves before competing in a social media race. The sentence “It is okay to be not okay” reinforces the idea that you can be not okay during this time and you can share your troubles. When I drew this sketch I was personally not feeling okay so I needed to feel a little less alone and in a way I am letting this sketch speak to me and giving me positive reinforcement and I posted this online and it was shared by a mental health page “Hub of Psychiatry” on Instagram and people connected with it and there was a feeling of togetherness in the community and the fact that we will all get through this time together.

People often hide their mental health issues and feelings because of the stigma attached to it and also because they feel that those around them will not understand so they pretend to be fine while inside they are feeling a lot of pain and negative emotions. Being asked “How are you” is a painful question to answer for some people and most of the time this question is asked out of courtesy and not because one is really interested to know how the other person is doing. Personally I have hidden my own mental health issues for a long time and acted like this girl in the picture before actually seeking out for help.

This sketch is more about coping strategy. One can cope with mental health issues by taking up a new hobby or creating something new, it gives a sense of achievement which is important for one’s own self esteem. I was feeling a bit off during the pandemic and lockdown and I started creating a series of sketches on mental health to connect to people and that helped me in my personal healing as well as those around me so that helped me gain some confidence and connect to people going through mental health issues and building a safe space for all of us to share our vulnerabilities.

This is about control we have over our minds. It has to do with self awareness that you have the power and control over your mind and thoughts and by growing positive thoughts and feeding positive things to your brain you can take care of your mental health.

This sketch highlights what mindfulness, meditation, yog nidra can do for a person. These coping strategies were mentioned by the professionals in their interviews can lead to a calm mind and that calm mind will help in building strength and resilience to fight the mental health issues.

People with mental health issues face so much pain internally that they don’t know how to deal with it and many a times they get attracted towards alcohol, nicotine etc because it hampers with their brain and they feel that it numbs their pain and before they realize it, they start getting addicted to such stuff. It’s important that the people around them take note of their state and guide them through it by giving them the counselling and the right kind of help at the right time. This sketch was purely drawn for sensitizing the people about the gravity of the issue.

Are you getting tired by this whole charade? Please don’t lose heart. First of all, I want to thank you for reading till here and now I am going to share write ups of the people who had something to say about World Mental Health Day.

My first contributor is Trishala Mahendru, she is a dear friend and runs a page on Instagram called as Dot To Stigma, she provides a safe space for people to share their stories and struggles with mental health. She has the following message for you all.

Mental health has become a hullabaloo in recent times; this has brought forward many different facets to it.
Where earlier mental health was seen no more than a fancy word and a result of westernisation; it has now become a very serious and empathetic issue to discuss with anyone.
For a person like me, who have had mental health issues, few trails of which are still on my mind; mental health is a very sensitive and important aspect of life for me.
I see mental health as an integral part of my physical and mental system.
Like how every morning i free my body from the undigested food and juices and detox it physically, similarly if we start detoxing our minds everyday from all the negative aspects surrounding our life, we can do wonders to our mental heath.
One of the important keys for this is talking to yourself daily. We should more than often introspect our actions and try and put them in the right direction.
Like it’s believed that every relation needs time, communication, connection and understanding; similarly you and your brain should also have a connection where you spend sometime of your day with your thoughts, try and understand them and communicate the reasons for any bad thought to yourself. The relation between you and your mental health is a daily task not the one on which you ponder only when you are reaching a breakdown.
Therefore it’s important to give up bad mental health habits and inculcate a few new ones so that your relationship with your mental health can last longer and stronger.
Be loyal to your mind, be loyal to yourself-That’s the mantra we all can thrive upon.

My second contributor to this post is Ekansha Khanduja, she is has been a support system and a dear friend and says, “I find it fascinating that we think of mental health as separate from physical health. It is ignorant to say the least that we can think of any physical health existing without mental health. The discourse of western medicine separated mental from physiological, but Eastern health systems like Yoga have always spoken of health from a holistic view. The importance of Yoga and meditation for maintenance overall health cannot be over-emphasized. Show love to yourself by making yoga and meditation a part of your daily rituals.
Love and peace to you all.”

My third contributor for today is someone really special, her name is Soumya Singh Chauhan and she is a pursuing her PhD along with me in the same batch and one day we got talking beyond our PhD topics and there was no looking back, she is a lecturer as well as does digital art and does fun with make up series on Instagram, she is also a poetess and she has shared her most personal experience with Mental Health, to be honest, initially I told her that I might not incorporate her entire story because it’s too long but then I read and reread what she wrote and I did not have the heart to exclude a single word from it so here it goes:

Waves by Soumya Singh Chauhan

In late 2016, I went through my second long bout of insomnia during that year. I would lie down looking at the dark road and climb out of bed when the bay across the street would start to reflect day light. Now when I look back, I had been repressing a lot of emotions throughout that year, feeling abandoned, disposable, not enough, hurt. But it was the passing of my best friend that brought everything, even unrelated to that particular grief, to the surface. Within a week I was in a foreign country where I wasn’t close to anyone and I didn’t meet family friends who resided there for two months. I needed time to mourn. I needed to hug someone and cry. But I worked and studied and repressed, and stayed awake with my thoughts during this time that seemed longer than usual, and lonelier than ever.

I don’t know what the right way was to deal with that time. I knew then that writing helped me. I started writing in early 2016, but I penned most of my poems during my first year in Seattle [September 2016-June 2017]. That is when I bled out of me everything that I thought I had swept off my shoulders, not under the rug. I would write about everything, struggle to write about her but do it nonetheless, and never look at those verses again. As if they had served their purpose and going back to it would be stabbing at wounds without given them time to scab and fall off the skin. But like I said, I still don’t know if that was the right way to deal with it. I don’t know if there is any right way to deal with grief at all. But I know I wasn’t doing well, that writing helped me, sharing it with the public at large by posting it and holding myself accountable to creating more helped me; it helped me then, all it could. So much so, that when I went through a writer’s block, I embraced it. It seemed like I had finally written everything out of me. I cherished days when my mind wasn’t buzzing with thoughts deciphering emotions, and figuring out ways to envelope an ache to best present it in an appetizing manner; I could never really write a raw narrative.

Maybe at that time I should have gone to therapy, talked to a professional, detangled the overlapping loops of my mind. It makes perfect sense! I know I would have if it was normalized. If it was normalized to talk about death and grief, maybe that thought would have crossed my mind. It just never did. Conversations about mental health are important, if you’re reading this writeup, you probably already believe it. But not just about diagnosable conditions like Depression or General Anxiety Disorder or Panic Disorder, but pain and grief, sadness. We all feel it and we brush it aside as if we weren’t just mere humans specifically wired to feel those very emotions, intensely, with no recourse but go through it. We feel jitters and joy, and love and excitement, and know nothing of why we do. But happiness is comfortable. Sadness shouldn’t be, rather its silence shouldn’t be, and it isn’t. The silence of sorrow is not comfortable to the person who experiences it, its sound is uncomfortable to those who have to hear it and we shut our mouths and plug our ears so as not to bother others with the ripples of these disturbed waters. No matter how much it storms within.

I am no professional in the field of mental health. I can only speak of my own experience. I’ve learnt to always reply to texts, respond to calls, and thank god for it, for the many crucial conversations that have happened since. If your own mental health allows it, be there for people, as much as you can. Listen to them. It takes several pep talks in the mirror and in the corners of dark rooms before opening up to someone about the most intimate detail of your life, about your struggle with yourself. If someone comes your way, hear them out. [And then guide them towards a professional, no one expects you to cure your friend, and shouldn’t, it’s not enough in several cases.]

If you enjoy someone’s beaches, welcome their waves. Welcome their waves when they crash on your tranquil territories, we can’t love people in pieces. And when we love them for all they are, respect them for it, we’ll normalize everything they feel, that inevitable, by virtue of being human, we will feel as well. So grief becomes grief, joy becomes joy and neither is foreign to words and voice.

Fourth contributor for this series is Akshay Chauhan, he is the quintessential shy guy who will only speak up when it is necessary and is a poet too. He writes, “Nothing can push your buttons as hard as the lack of mental well-being. It is not something which can be hushed away or turn a blind eye. This is a real issue. And not doing something about it would be cancerous. See, it’s a simple math, when you are at peace with yourself you’ll find all the good in people around you; even appreciate little things to be grateful for; might even dance to bird’s coo but when you are not at peace, the world seems bleaker than ever; nothing makes sense and the worst of all…you just wanna give up on life itself! So, I beg of you all to not let it go undiagnosed. Talk to someone, seek professional help the moment you think there’s something funny going on up in there.“

Fifth contributor for this is Shivika Suri, a trained psychologist, she writes, “World mental health day is celebrated to make sure that the awareness about “mental health” is on point.
This day is all about realising your worth and self-love. If loving yourself is important to you then mental health will be the first thing you would want to look into.
Also, I want you all to remember that just because a person laughs a lot that doesn’t mean they aren’t dealing with any problem.
Just because they haven’t gone through any pain in the past means that they are doing fine.
Just because she/he is a therapist that doesn’t mean they don’t need help.
Seeking help or taking therapy is a sign of strength because hiding it is a weakness and living with it is the weakest you can be.
I hope you are celebrating this day by coming out and talking to someone about what you are facing and going through. After all, this is about self-love and that favours your sanity. 🙂“

And last but never the least is my personal favourite Rachna Kulshreshtha, she is a second mother to me, a teacher, a friend, family, guide, and someone who I really look upto. If you want to meet a strong woman, she is one and she can teach you to be one. But at the same time, she is humble, sweet, caring, gentle, feminine. Women like her are rare and she writes about Elephant Ears. Let’s Read!

‘World Mental Health Day’, I knew it was around the corner but was in my own mental trip, which I called being off the grid, to notice it was today. Neha asked me to send my thoughts by evening and I was like… Today? “Haan, it’s today na.” She replied.

Just then. That very moment this term World Mental Health Day mocked at me. As if saying, “Girl! You? You can’t be serious. You’d write about me!! You’re so fucked up in head yourself.” I looked at her, replied gingerly, “You know what I am going through, don’t you?” She said, “Yeah! So don’t even think about it. I want someone sane enough to be writing for me.”

“Huh! All the more reason for me to write instead.” I muttered. “Okay lemme see what you can do.” She shrugged.

I opened the notes and began and this is what I wrote. I wrote because I must. I wrote because when I pour out it feels light and good. I wrote because someone out there will read and might resonate and might decide to pour their heart too. Maybe through colours or through conversations or through any other form of expression.

Who knows, they might feel light and good too. You know, I have elephant ears to listen to someone when they genuinely need someone to listen. But sometimes even I need someone to be those elephant ears to me.

This beautiful day came was born because the ‘Human’ inside us got fucked by ourselves. World Mental Health Day is our illegitimate baby and of all the situations that we create around us and then we don’t find the courage to own them.

We look for surrogates, step parents, orphanages to nurture this baby but we don’t do it ourselves. High time that we take our own responsibility. I am ready to own my situations and help myself. If I am not capable enough to help myself then I am not ashamed of asking for help. It’s some courage and one decision away from you. Trust me.

For I truly believe, ‘If I can be the elephant ears, so can you.’

And that’s the end of stories from the contributors. I want to thank all the contributors for writing these and to you my dear readers for reading this. Mental Health Day might be just a day but Mental Health is something that needs to be taken care of throughout your life, so keep breathing and take good care of your bodies, your heart and your mind.

Until next time. Yours Truly

Neha

Mental Health and Pandemic

Hello Dear Readers,

I know I have been pretty dormant with my blog off late and whatever I wrote in the past few months was nothing more than few random scribbling of a depressed mind. As I write this, I am trying to be as cheerful as I can because let’s face it, we all can do with a bit of happiness in these morbid times. It has been more than 6 months since the pandemic of covid 19 has hit India and we are all locked up in our homes working from home, a lot of people have lost their jobs and are just sitting home idle trying to survive on their savings and while some don’t have savings either and have to just manage somehow, let’s face the fact that life is currently hard for EACH AND EVERYONE. There are sick people in the family, there are deaths, there is financial struggle, exploitation at work and lack of peace of mind so all of these things are going around and on top of that we hear the news that India has the largest number of covid 19 cases and the lowest GDP, there is hate in the world against the government and political leaders, people have lost tolerance for each other in such times and while people need to be more kind and empathetic, there is a general drain out with regard to empathy in the people, people are finding it hard to empathize and understand now that so much is going on in the country at a large scale and so much is going on with the people at a small scale, in short, no one is spared, everyone is suffering, be it kids, be it teenagers, college adults, doctors, teachers, parents, businessmen, women in general, the list is endless. Almost everyone I know is having mental breakdowns every now and then, I personally have breakdowns atleast once a week. There is tremendous pressure to be productive and fit. A lot of people have put on weight during lockdown and due to which there are emerging insecurities about body image issues and with gyms not opening, there is a surge in online fitness programs which people feel the need to attend, I, for once, followed a diet plan for a month, lost weight and when the program ended, gained even more weight, so it is extremely difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle or fitness routine in this pandemic. I saw a meme yesterday which said that “The pandemic has been so long that I got in and out of shape in these many months” and I could not help but laugh it off because that’s exactly what happened with me too, though I was already out of shape because of pandemic, thanks to emotional eating and huge consumption of cheesecake during depression days but then during the pandemic I lost 2kgs with a diet plan and then again put those back on and now my face is also fat and my arms are giving competition to my thighs but enough about me. I have no clue how people are motivated to exercise during these times, I am not even motivated to get up in the morning. Some nights I just wish please god make me die in my sleep so that I don’t have to wake up but then I guess I have work to do before I leave this world, so god is kind and lets me live. But whenever I talk to anyone and ask them how they are doing, there is a standard reply “kat rha hai time“, it seems that everyone has given up on joy and the idea of “living” the life. This pandemic has turned all of us into survivors and well, like everyone, I am also trying to survive. There is a bank of good days and bad days. There are productive days and days which are followed up by complete lethargy and sure work suffers during those days but then it balances out in productive times. What I have learnt in my six months of pandemic is that self love and self appreciation is really important for survival. Most of the times when we are busy in our lives, we have these small little milestones like “Boss approved of my work”, “A colleague appreciated me”, “I did my work before deadline”, “Someone called me pretty at the party I went to last week” and there is negative stuff too like politics in the workplace, stress etc but there is a routine, you wake up, you take a bath, you have to reach office on time, there is work on your desk, you get stuck in traffic, you come tired, you spend time with the family or watch tv, eat your dinner and go to sleep so it takes your mind off the little milestones and the negativity in your life, but pandemic took that sense of routine away with you and you have a lot of time to think and be with your self and even though there is work but you are not being watched and there is no set office environment, the lines between work and family time or time with oneself are blurred and this gives room to negative thoughts, this is where your self love and self appreciation will come in handy to keep you sane in times like these. You need to pat your back for little little things you do, like you made food for yourself or you cleaned your house or you studied and made a document or you painted or you wrote something instead of measuring your self worth by the amount of office work you got done. I am telling you all of this because this is something that I have experienced personally, I tend to measure my self worth by how much productive work I have done but then we need to normalize this fact as a society that times are tough and if you are just surviving that is enough, sure you need to work and earn and do stuff but sometimes it’s okay to break down, it’s okay to relax, it’s okay to reach out for help. We all shall make it, one day at a time.

Wishing you the best

Yours

Neha

Creating Something New

I have been struggling with creating something new for a long time now. It’s not that I have a writers’ block but I have stopped feeling writing come naturally to me like it used to. This lockdown had given me sometime to go through my own blog and I observed that earlier I was able to give words to my feelings so very easily but now with overconsumption of content on Instagram, I just end up sharing relevant posts with a caption “Relatable”, “That’s so me”, “Mood”, “Life these days” without actually writing something of my own. Like I share a meme about period cramps when I am having my own periods, I share a depressing as fuck post when I am low on energy, I share a happy dance video of someone else on my instagram story instead of writing my own happy post, I share content about the corona virus pandemic, mental health posted by others instead of actually expressing my “own” “original” thoughts because I often have this feeling that my thoughts are not unique and I had stopped writing for the soul. I do write diary entries sometimes but even my diary writings have become so short and crisp and not long enough where I would dwell into details like I used to do earlier. I feel so exhausted so soon like right now, when I am writing this blog post, I have written barely 200 words by this line and I am feeling exhausted and I don’t feel like writing further and I remember being very good with my expression, I used to write long texts, long letters, long emails and I never struggled with the task of completing my word limit but now I do. Earlier I used to write 500 words in the blink of an eye but now I struggle to write a concrete article or a blog post as a matter of fact. And this has been bothering me for a while because right now I am in a PhD Program, where I have to start working on writing of my thesis and I am struggling to come up with the first sentence itself, even though my guide and my professors have guided me how to go about academics, I still am struggling. So I thought, instead of going into the realm of academic writing, let me first create something for my blog and here I am trying to voice out my thoughts.

Writing is an art that requires natural skill and talent and I used to think I have it in me but with what has been happening lately, I feel it’s more about passion and state of mind as well. In addition to this experience, I am also struggling to find my concentration in reading books, technically, both writing and reading were activities which were usually effortless for me but now they require a lot of effort from my end and now I start writing something, but don’t really complete it and so is with books that I begin reading but abandon them in between and what bothers is the guilt of abandoning my written pieces and books like that. It is that guilt that is making me write this post.

However, what comforts me is that art has not really abandoned me completely, if I am not able to write and read these days, I have found comfort in the art of sketching and photography. That is keeping me sane through this struggle, like

“Hum ko maaloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat, lekin Dil ko khush rakhne ko Ghaalib yeh khayaal achcha hai”

I know that the struggle to not being able to read and write to my heart’s content is bothersome but it’s good to find hope in other art forms such a photography and sketching but at the same time I know I missing out on my original essence. The sketches I create are usually art created by others which I simply copy because I am not very good at sketching things based out of my own imagination. However, what is my own is the photography but my photograph of the moon is like any other beginner’s photograph of the moon on Instagram so I don’t find the satisfaction of being unique even there. Yes if I have clicked 2000 shots, about 100 of them would be good, unique and can be dearly called as my personal creation but I still lack that satisfaction and when I talk to my mom about it, she tells me contentment is a state of mind, sometimes, you should feel content that you exist and I struggle with this thought.

In one of the discussions with a dear friend sometime back, we talked about how “Sense of Achievement” is important for our mental health. While it is important to be physically fit, have sound relationships and a stable career for a better life, this feeling of sense of achievement is also equally important. During the phase of my depression last year, I have gained 10 kgs over a period of time and now I no longer fit into any of my clothes and that is a major cause for my personal insecurities. Looking good is very important for self esteem no matter what people say and having gained weight I have become conscious of my body but at the same time I am unable to be regular with workout and lose weight. Food is my weakness, I do emotional eating. There is a void inside of me which I try to fill through good food. So, these insecurities hamper my sense of achievement often. Even when I manage to study well I struggle with giving myself a pat on the back. By god’s grace, I have been blessed with amazing genes that even with weight gain I manage to look elegant and pretty and I am able to pose for self portraits and post them online and gain validation but what bothers me is my own need for validation at times. This struggle to create something new is a struggle of validation from my ownself.

Instagram positivity pages talk about self love, how it is just enough to exist but can someone really tell me how?

Books I read in 2019

Last year in 2018, I started off with this blog series- Books I read in 2018 

Continuing with the tradition I started, I am again going to document the books I read in the year 2019. This actually provides a great opportunity to reflect back and see the progress. In 2018, I managed to read 37 books in total with 4 half read ones, however, the quantity of books I read this year is less but totally worthwhile. Without wasting anymore time, here I begin.

Sometimes I spend so much time in setting the background that content gets lost. To be honest, I felt this year was far too long and it got divided into two halves, the first half of the year was pretty normal, happy, chirpy while the second half was full of darkness and I had to cope with depression during that time so reading took a backseat, anyhow, the list and the experiences are as follows.

1. Surviving Women by Jerry Pinto

Times have changed and it’s hard being a man for now there is a strange species around: The Modern Woman. This book talks about how the confused Indian male sees the modern woman and majorly talks about male psychology and answers several questions about manhood, patriarchy and feminism. It’s actually a good read with a lot of funny elements and sarcasm. Both men and women can give this book a shot. It shares voices of 110 odd men throughout.

2.  HBR Guide to Emotional Intelligence

This is one of the most insightful books I have read in a long long time. I have not been really fond of Self Help Books but it isn’t really a self help book, it is something that makes you go deep into self analysis and analysis of the people around you. It makes you understand yourself and the people around you in a better fashion and helps improve your relationships with yourself and with the people in your life. Definitely a recommended read.

3. Destined to Play by Indigo Bloome

Honestly I have received too many judgments whenever I tell people that I like to read erotica. But I feel it’s important to indulge into such reads once in a while.

On the face of it, this book can be a very casual read but at the same time if you give it enough thought, it will make you think about concepts of female sexuality and importance of pleasure for females, notions of consent, psychology, manipulation, insecurities in a relationship and insecurities about one’s own self.
Reading this book was a mixed experience because while it is exciting and thrilling for the most part, it does gets emotionally disturbing too.
I’d rate it as a 3 star book on a 5 star scale. You may or may not pick this book, totally your call.

4. What to do when I’m Gone by Suzi Hopkins and Hallie Bateman

What to do when I am gone is a book written by a mother-daughter duo. The mother and daughter share a special bond and the mother is the lifeline and anchor in the daughter’s life and they talk about a lot of stuff and one day they were talking about “Death” and daughter requested her mother to help write her a step by step guide to get through life after the mother has died and this is one of those books that have made me feel so warm and happy from the inside. Like in Disney movies whenever someone would fall in love, the animation effects would show that the heart glows in yellow, this book made my heart glow through every single page.

5. Am I there yet? by Mari Andrew

5th book of the year was this graphic novel.
Journey of a girl from her 20s to 30s.
This book is so so so so beautiful which talks about so many things

1. Overcoming uncertainty
2. Creating a feeling of home when you are away from home. Creating your own space
3. Finding the purpose of life
4. Love and dating- making wrong choices and dealing with them
5. Heartbreaks and loss- how to handle grief, how to manage your own self.
6. How to overcome disappointment in life and become resilient as an individual
7. Discovering one’s own self
8. Finding yourself and finally becoming an adult by the time you hit 30s, just keep growing always.
There will be challenges even after hitting the 30s but then you’ll be equipped with enough experience to get through the life ahead. ❤️ Recommended read for all the people in my age at least. (P.S. I turn 25 in Feb 2020, Teehee)

6. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing

This was a tedious book to read but extremely important if you’re a student or a professional who has to do a lot of writing at work or a teacher too. Highly recommended read for all.

7. Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

This book was literally put into my hands by my dear friend Eshita Hatwal, she had been after my life to read this book for a long time and me being me kept on procrastinating it but she actually put the book into my hands by gifting it to me on my birthday and I cannot describe what I really felt after reading this book. I was just numb because it was one breathtaking read. Read it to feel the extreme overwhelming power of unconditional love between two sisters.

8. The Male Brain by Louann Brizendine

This was purely a scientific book with all the medical terms but at the same time it taught concepts to a layman through stories supporting that science and this is one book which MUST BE READ by all women in order to understand little boys, teenage boys, 20 something young men, 30-45 age group men and beyond. It has answers to why boys get aggressive, why male ego exists, why men come off as emotionally distant or emotionally unavailable at times, why sometimes work comes above relationships, why fathers bond more with daughters or why they share a disciplinarian kind of relationship with their sons and why grandfathers are usually grumpy.
Highly recommended.
And honestly this one would make you respect and love the men in your life more.

9. The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine

It was again an extremely insightful book about how our minds work. I would recommend every woman and every man to read this book. It explains several of our behaviors, mood swings, PMS, the motherly instinct and much more.
What I learned from this is that it is true that our biology affects us a lot, our hormones play a huge role in our daily life and they become our reality, however, if we start understanding our biology, if we start understanding how our minds respond to situations and conflicts, we will be better equipped to transform our realities. We can ‘re-wire’ our brains if we understand them in the first place.
Highly recommended.

10. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain

I finished reading this book in one sitting and that happens rarely now. This is one such romance novel which you cannot stop reading once you pick it up.
Books like these make me believe in all things magical. What a heartwarming read. If I could I would marry the man in this book with no second thoughts ever. ❤

11. HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Mental Toughness

I am genuinely blank about review of this book. I remember picking it up but not much of it has retained and this was the time my mental health started to get affected bit by bit so I tried to read it to keep myself charged but honestly right now I don’t have any memory of it. It was more mechanical and a tough book to read. I don’t remember how this book made me feel or what it said.

12. The Forest of Enchantments by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The story of Ramayana through the eyes of Sita and how different it is when told by a woman. Honestly when I picked it up, it looked a little lengthy and confusing and a bit boring too but once I crossed reading first fifty pages, I could not put it down and it was a beautiful journey then on. Definitely recommended.

13. Jungle Radio

A big children’s book about birds. The one with too many colors and bird poems, it was a pure delight to read this one. I felt like a happy kid while reading it.

14. Delhi Heritage Top 10 Baolis by Vikramjit Singh Rooprai

Vikram Sir is a dear friend and he came up with his first book and I just had to read it. It is a beautiful piece of work and anyone who is interested in history and heritage must pick this one up. I have personally been on a couple of heritage walks with Vikram Sir and therefore, there were certain parts of the book I could relate to so well because I have seen the Baolis and heard him explain things. It was an amazing journey, and I am eagerly looking forward to more books by him.

15. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda

A collection of erotic poetry, just for sad days.

16. Public Policy In India by Rajesh Chakrabarkty and Kaushik Sanyal

India has 130 police officers per 100000 citizens, 0.62 doctors per 1000 people, 15 judges per million and we need huge policy shifts. Quite an insightful read.

17. Destined to Feel by Indigo Bloome

Part 2 of Destined to Play book, highly disappointing. Part 1 was a nice read that motivated me to pick up the second part but a waste of time.

18. Dealing with Difficult People

This was about how we manage our emotions and people in our daily lives and mostly at workplace. Good read.

19. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

This was by far the best book of 2019 because of how relatable it was for me at that time. I was going through a rough period with regard to my mental health and I spent a month reading this book about therapy and mental health. It made me think a lot and cry a lot too. Sometimes the book would get so heavy for me to read that I had to abandon it for days but when I finished reading it, there was certain sense of calm and peace and it was after reading this book I found the courage to go to therapy and realize that I was in need of help and nobody will save me if I don’t reach out. I want to thank Kritika Narula for this recommendation.

20. Tongue in Cheek: Funny Side of life by A. Khyrunnisa

Not very gripping, short stories which you can read before going to bed or in between study breaks, that’s how I finished reading this book. Doesn’t live up to the expectations, will probably make you smile a little occasionally, that’s about it.

This year, I didn’t have any half read books like last year because the books that were half read in 2018 are still pending and I don’t know when will I pick them up again. Till then, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and have taken away some good recommendations with you. Happy reading.

 

 

What My Depression and Therapy Sessions Made Me Realize

It’s no news that I have been depressed. I have been pretty open about my mental illness and have reached out for help and have been lucky enough to get help at the right time as well. From being perpetually suicidal to being normal functional human being who manages to now take bath everyday even in winters, manages to concentrate and study, manages to eat her meals on time and have a sound sleep, I still end up sleeping a lot than a normal human being but I guess that’s acceptable when you’re recovering and I don’t have to beat myself up for sleeping. But I have had tremendous realizations when I went through this turmoil of depression and a series of therapy sessions. Before proceeding further, I’d like to share a happy news that I am out of the clinical depression phase but I still have to take care of my triggers because it’s a precarious stage where I can go both ways. I am at a point where I can either come out of it or go into a super dark place if triggered and then it would be super difficult to come out of it. So far my graph is upwards instead of spiraling downwards like it was for months that I hit my rock bottom and all I could wonder about was how to kill myself but now I have hopes, laughter, smiles, goals, now I wake up in the morning and have something to look forward to.

Anyway I was talking about the realizations I have had. I realized that I am 24 years old and I am about turn 25 in two months and twenty nine days and I have not lived my life for myself at all. I have lived a life which was ALWAYS approved of by my parents. I have let others make choices for myself and my life and have not lived an individual life and occasionally I have rebelled in order to establish my authority over my life but that rebellion was also validated and it was not complete rebellion. I have lived whole of my life in fear and I have always wanted to be accepted by the social standards, always being the conventional “good girl” and not making any mistakes and whenever I was about make a mistake I have always been taken care of by my parents and teachers because they have been the closest to me and whenever it came to friends and friendships I have always tried to make my friends happy by doing what suited them and what they liked instead of actually saying or demanding what I like in a friendship and whenever I have done so, I have lost people and so keep the people close to me I have put myself behind and put others first and I have been terribly alone but at the same time I have realized that the right people and the right friends do stick around no matter what. When I was going through a rough period, I thought I had nobody but I had so much support and so much unexpected support that I cannot fathom and I am extremely grateful for that.

Depression took away my identity for me. If I were to define myself, it would be, A Happy Go Lucky Girl who loved to read, write, talk and meet new people and go out and have fun.. the girl who would laugh uncontrollably at almost anything and spread smiles around. Things that I have been really proud of as a person is how I would laugh with complete abandon. I have ample number of pictures of me just laughing, laughing, laughing and laughing. I’m someone who has laughed in a sensual situation and made it comedy and turned the guy off but I really don’t regret it you know. Because I was just plain happy. Depression took away my uncontrollable laughter, it took away what I loved the most-my habit of reading and writing, I just could not concentrate to read and writing stopped coming to me naturally. All I wanted was to stay at home, in bed and cry and do nothing, like life became absolutely meaningless for me. I started hating myself, my life, my surroundings and everything about it. I constantly had this need to be around someone, to have a friend to talk to, but at the same time I felt like a constant burden on everyone I loved and everyone who loved me. I stopped being comfortable with the idea of being alone, being alone sent me into complete loneliness and would make me feel suicidal. Depression took away who I was as a human being. And therefore, therapy came to rescue.

Now, with therapy I realized all that was missing from my life was self love and taking a stand for myself and living the life on my own terms. I have always let others decide for myself, sometimes it has been my parents, sometimes it has been my teachers, sometimes it has been my friends but I haven’t really made my own choices and whenever I tried to make my own choices, I have been afraid and fear has kept me from living my own life on my own and I have ended up conforming to the social norms because it was safe. And safety has led me to depression. Not making enough mistakes has led me to depression. Always playing it by the rules of the society has led me to depression. And now that I am coming out of it, there is a lot of confusion that is going on in my head, there is a lot of bravery and courage I need to actually start living my own life and I know it will make me lose out on a lot of friendships, I will be disappointing my parents, I will be making mistakes but “here’s the thing about mistakes. Sometimes, even when you know something’s a mistake, you gotta make it anyway.” Said the famous Ted Mosby. I am learning to be alone again and this time it is peaceful. I have the right people in my life and I hope to make through this journey.

Honestly I would always be confused what I wanted to talk about with my therapist but this time after writing out this entire blog post I now know what to talk in the next session. Wish me luck if you can and I wish you all the best for your personal battles in life. I hope you make it too.

Much Love.

 

 

Where is the light?

 

We are the millennials, the people who read a lot and who belong to the hookup culture, whose values are often questioned and we are the generation that talks a lot about mental health. But we are also the ones who are constantly trying to better ourselves as humans. Working on oneself is a tiring and tedious process. While it is the most important thing to do to get through and get ahead in life, it is mentally exhausting as well.

Why working on oneself is mentally exhausting?

1. Because you are constantly aware of your shortcomings as a person and you are constantly trying to overcome them, it creates self-imposed stress.
2. Results of working on ourselves take years to show, you don’t become a saint in a day, and in the process, there are many instances where you feel like a failure and all your efforts seem worthless because you cannot help your shortcomings and insecurities and resulting behavior.
3. Because you introspect a lot. It makes you question yourself way too much. You do not even realize it but you become very harsh on yourself and as well as become negative too, not about the situation, not about the people around you but about yourself, your feelings, your emotions and constantly feel apologetic to your loved ones for your behavior.
4. Because you accept your faults and shortcomings and talk about your insecurities to your loved ones and while they help you get through most of the times, there are days and times when they tap into your insecurities and fears and hurt you either intentionally or unintentionally and you start doubting your trust in them.
5. Despite all the 4 points above, you still love the way you love and sometimes people take that as you don’t have enough self-respect or you start questioning your self-respect too by putting up with the hurt which you know is eventually useful to you in your growth but still, you do.

 

What is the solution?

You breathe, you breathe and you accept yourself. You give yourself positive self-talk when no one else does. You got to be your own hero and you can be slow, you don’t have to win your battle against your shortcomings in a day. You are constantly a work in progress. So breathe. Eat well, sleep well, laugh well and cry well too. But don’t stop or close yourself, because it is this open space in your mind and heart which will help let the light of life enter you and brighten up your soul.

Only this much for today, feel free to share your own experiences and stories in the comment section below.

There are things left to say

Hello Dear Readers,

I hope you all are doing really well in your respective lives and even if you are not, better days are on their way, so have patience. It’s easier said than done but trust me, just try.

Anyway, I had put up a shutdown post sometime back. On 6th July 2018, I said that I will be shutting down this blog which I have built over a period of five long years because I wanted to take up blogging to another different level. I wanted to be professional in my writing. I wanted to write about economic issues and other important things that go around the world and help the student community majorly through that blog. While the work for that is under process, I still have things left to say. I am not a professional economics student 24*7. I am human and this blog represents the human side of me. I have experimented with all kinds of writings, emotions, ideas here, so I am back to my familiar writing space in a community where I do have a bunch of regular readers across the world, with whom I may not have personal contact but interactions on WordPress,  about ideas, poetry, writing and the feeling that no matter what, we are all the same people deep down is comforting.

Anyway, I have started to digress from the topic like I always do. I spend so much time setting up the context of the blog post that I get tired when I start to write the real thing. So without wasting any more time, I am here to talk about all the random stuff that comes to my mind while writing this. So no context. Feel free to leave reading at this point, or maybe get on with it and just go “Hmmmm, What did she actually say?” at the end. Your call. Choose Wisely. Here I start.

 

Sexual harassment and Mental Health are the two hot topics which we get to read about constantly on our social media accounts. Women are coming out with their stories which happened years ago, people are trying to talk about their mental health issues. There is so much good happening around us. We are in one of those times where we are actually using our freedom of expression and there are both sides to it. There are people in support and there are people who are mocking and demeaning us in ways which makes us fear the idea of talking about things that bother us. I refrain from talking about issues on social media because I personally do not have the energy to get involved in pointless debates on the internet that take away time, energy and mental peace. However, whenever there is a positive talk, I do indulge because even in the virtual world of technology, few positive words work wonders. Someone might have had a shitty morning and if you just tell them I hope you have a good day, much love to you, it might make them smile only for like 5 seconds but if they reflect and feel a bit lonely, this could be their cue to feeling a little okay at least if not better. In times like these, it is extremely important we choose the right things to read and write on the social media. Because there are bright sides and a dark hole which will consume you. And I am a person who is often confused so I have done both. I have been on the bright sides and I have been consumed by the dark hole.

And honestly, most of my writings and blog posts are for myself first and then for my readers. I am selfish that way. I like to write about things that hurt, I love to write about things that make me uncomfortable, that make me cry, that is cringeworthy at times as well because in my personal experience, this is the way I talk to myself, where I can be a friend to myself and enjoy my own company. And why I choose to put up such things on my blog is simply because I know I am not alone, there are a few bunch of people out there who think like me, who act like me, who are like me in so many ways and might just find comfort in their lives through these confused looking write-ups.

“It is always easier to be strong for your loved ones than for yourself.”

I read this line sometime back, somewhere. I don’t know the exact source, however, all I know is that this line has stayed with me for the longest time. I have had a tendency to attract all sorts of weird crazy broken people towards me and I used to think that it is my job to fix them all and I did that for years, since school time, since the time I remember having people around me. I was a people pleaser, I have always wanted people around me to be happy, even at the cost of my own happiness. Well, the world was not what I saw it to be with my rose-tinted glasses. People use and abuse good people like things and I have had my share of that. So now I am like chuck everyone, I rather started to enjoy the idea of offending people by not being always nice to them, mostly I became mean to my own relatives and aunts and uncles and anyone who did not give a good vibe. I became too judgemental and what I did was wrong, so don’t do that. Be nice to people, always. It is easy. And if you do not feel like being nice, back off, don’t offend someone, it hurts later. I have had my share of regrets there.
So I was reading a post I wrote in 2013, it said don’t let the negativity around you change the way you look at the world, be good and the good things and people will come to you. But I did not stick to what I believed in and used my negative experiences to build so many walls around me. I did let the negativity get to me and then a series of poetry and posts which I wrote had this one constant thought- I do not like the person I am becoming and suddenly I  was lost forever. I knew my way, I knew my road and I hid behind the words- Maybe, I don’t know. I was just too scared to open myself up again until sometime back. From being someone who was comfortable alone and enjoyed her own company a lot, I started to get dependent on the outside of the things to get happy, I started wanting to have company, being alone did not feel as peaceful as it used to because of so many self-created issues and disorder of overthinking and less writing. I stopped being my own lucky charm because I stopped being strong for myself. I was strong for others but not myself the way I used to be. And that is when I started to love myself a little less and get critical and at the same time wanted so much out of me as a human that all of it got too much. I had high ambitions and failures simultaneously and everything then turned out to be about me. I started caring a little less about others, even my loved ones, even the family I am a part of, I distanced myself from everyone, most importantly, from myself.

Perhaps, the only person we need to be strong for is ourselves. Loving oneself is the only important thing because if I love myself enough, I’ll love you enough and a virtuous circle will start instead of a vicious circle of being critical towards oneself and the world. This is what I have been realizing and learning every day for past couple of weeks

Why on earth I am putting all of this in a blog post? All the things mentioned here are personal experiences and ideas and thoughts and the journey? Why is it up here on the WordPress blog? Because I have a dear friend who once told me, you are not alone. There are crazy people out there like you who have similar issues, who have similar problems, who have similar thought patterns and that is why you find Instagram posts that relate to you, that is why you find poems that feel as if they are describing you, that is why you find books whose main character looks just like you because deep down we are all humans and I hope this post finds you. I hope it makes you feel less alone, I hope it makes you write, talk to the ones you love, create art, go to comfortable familiar places which remind you of who you are and I wish you find friends who throw away your personal dictionary of weirdly stupid ideas and help you correct the fundamental thought of life and most importantly make you feel loved and worthy enough because you are worthy without doing any productive thing on a lazy day and you deserve the happiness and love you are getting. Don’t be like me questioning happiness. Be you. Meanwhile, I’ll try to be a better me.

oh, did I tell you that when you sing at the top of your voice, that is the ultimate happiness? So my dear reader, what are you waiting for?

And yes, this blog is back to being alive. I’ll keep updating both. This one and the professional blog under construction, show some love there too when it is launched. Thank you all so much in advance.