This 35-year-old culinary expert was surviving on a dosa or a few teaspoonfuls of rice a day till a few months back. His appetite was for alcohol, which he had almost round-the-clock. This forced him to plunge into depression and more alcohol. After treatment at a Madurai facility, he feels he is born again and longs to unite with his wife and son, who left after realising that alcohol gained precedence over everything else in life for him.
Depression, which is stalking many families, has become a serious health issue and the World Health Organisation estimates that people living with depression increased by more than 18% between 2005-15. It is feared that depression would occupy the second position, next only to heart disease, as disease burden on society. This mental illness is prevalent more among women than men. According to the National Mental Health Survey of India 2015-16, 4.5% of Tamil Nadu population is affected by depression. The theme of this year’s World Health Day, which falls on April 7, is depression. WHO has launched a year-long campaign, ‘Depression, let’s talk,’ with the objective of enabling more people with depression to seek help.
The magnitude of depression is still to be understood by society, says C. Ramasubramanian, State Nodal Officer, Mental Health Programme. Factors loaded against treatment of depression include inadequate skilled manpower and infrastructure, high cost, lack of awareness and stigma. “Among psychiatric disorders, mental illness is preventable, treatable and curable, if identified early. Otherwise, it will become untreatable and incurable, leading to suicide in some cases,” warns Dr. Ramasubramanian. The peculiar nature of depression, he explains, is that it impacts the entire family, especially when it affects a person in the most productive phase of life. “A worrying mind is prone to depression. When the mind worries, organs weep,” he says.
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“People feel sad over a failed romance, failure in examination, death in the family, problematic relationship or serious illness. Sadness transforms into depression when they are not able to come out of it over a short period of time. Alarm bells should ring when the blues refuse to get away,” says K. S. P. Janardhan Babu of M. S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation. According to him, people have a tendency to seek refuge in alcohol to overcome depression, mistaking it to be a mood enhancer. “Depression and alcoholism are inter-related variables. Actually, alcohol is not a stimulant but depressant,” says Mr. Babu.
The State government, according to Dr. Ramasubramanian, has provided trained personnel for all district headquarters hospitals, where a 10-bedded psychiatric ward has started to function. “The government cannot tackle this problem alone. Educated people and corporate houses should lend a helping hand, especially in removing the stigma surrounding mental illness,” he says. Dr. Ramasubramanian is confident that there will be significant reduction in number of suicides if depression is treated at the level of PHC.