May is marked as the mental health month for 2014. We, in Pakistan, are not too worried about health of any kind, let alone mental health. As per statistics, the country has one to two psychiatrists per a million people.
The priorities of the state are clear. We are convinced that there are no challenges to our mental health. Besides, what else are faith healers for? That’s how the majority of mental ailments are treated or attempted to be treated here.
In most cases, people with such problems are stigmatised and shunned by the society.
The fact that we have so few qualified mental health professionals also indicates the impact of that stigma in this society. It shows that students are discouraged from taking up this branch of knowledge; very few adopt it professionally. As a consequence, there is very little specialised research done in the country by the even fewer practitioners and institutions.
This was a practical difficulty once we decided to focus on just one ailment that goes by the name of OCD in today’s Special Report. Often confused with ordinary anxieties and fixations, people like to refer themselves as ‘OCDs’ in their day to day conversations, especially in urban settings. Truth is that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is caused by "chemical and functional abnormalities in the brain and may be genetic". They are different from "everyday worries, superstitions or cautious habits".
But as Dr Ambreen Ahmad tells us that some temperamental and social factors may make a person more vulnerable to OCD. It can be very disabling and distressful for the patients. But the good news is that it can be managed. She tells us it is not good to hide it from others and not seek help for it. "Educating themselves about this disorder will empower them to deal with it," she says. This will make them realise they are not alone in it. She suggests many websites and some self-help books that can be of a lot of help. The support of the family is crucial like in all mental ailments.
Living with OCD is, indeed, the message of today’s Special Report, living with courage and understanding of the problem. Meanwhile, we as a society need to focus a lot more on our mental health than we currently do.