While studying for his MBBS degree at Khyber Medical College in the 1960s, Dr Khalid Mufti recalls being most interested in the working of the human brain and emotions. “I felt more attracted to studying and learning about human emotions. In my childhood, I had learnt from my parents that one should listen to those in distress and particularly help the relatives in times of need. I believe this was the reason that later prompted me to pursue a career in psychiatry,” Dr Khalid Mufti tells The News on Sunday.

Dr Mufti says empathy for the patient is the key in the practice of psychiatry. He says that almost 50 percent of the patients suffering from mental stress or psychiatric disorders can be treated by listening to them carefully and with a sense of empathy.

“I have always tried to bring people with extreme emotions to a moderate level.”

Dr Mufti completed his MBBS in 1969. In those days, psychiatry was not recognised in the country as a separate discipline. He therefore went to the UK and studied psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatry. He also served as a senior lecturer in psychiatry. He is a fellow of the Royal College of UK.

Dr Mufti is also the chief executive of Ibadat Hospital and runs an NGO called Horizon, which provides free treatment to drug addicts and other psychiatric patients and consultancy services to various organizations.

Despite his busy professional schedule, he also finds time for literary pursuits. He organises poetry recital sessions in Pashto, Urdu, Hindko and English languages. He himself writes poetry is English and has great interest in Persian poetry and literature. “I once recited some of my English poems. They were so well received by the audience that I started writing regularly. Most of our people have a taste for literature, but most don’t get many opportunities,” he said.

Dr Mufti says the coronavirus pandemic has caused an increase in the psychiatric diseases in the society. “The frequent hand washing and media messages of coronavirus threat caused an increase in anxiety cases and in suicidal thoughts among patients. The coronavirus not only caused an increase in fresh psychiatric cases but also aggravated the condition of depressive persons as medicine were not readily available during the lockdowns.”

He says that nowadays, 9 to 13 percent children are suffering from depression. “The overuse of technology is one of the causes of depression. Now that the schools are reopening in the near future, the children will return to more normal routines and their depression and anxiety levels will go down. However, it remains to be seen if the schools are able to ensure precautionary measures for coronavirus as the threat is still there,” he says.

“The society has changed a lot during the last 30 to 40 years. A few decades ago, depression and anxiety would go away once the patient would mixed up with and spoke to their family and friends. However, trauma was always something that required psychiatric treatment. The main causes of trauma in Pakistan are terrorist attacks, and calamities like the 2005 earthquake,” he says.

“In the backdrop of the Afghan war in the ’80s, entered Pakistan and the overall trauma spilled over into Pakistan because Pakistan had to host the neighbourly Afghans. I myself have worked in Afghanistan. The people in the war-ravaged country need a lot of psychiatric help,” he says.

Dr Mufti’s organization provided counselling to the affected people in the Northern Areas soon after the 2005 earthquake. They also held mental health camps for Afghan refugees and later for those who had been affected in the Swat operation when many people left their homes due to the militant threat and the military operation against the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

“I remember that on the third day of the 2005 earthquake, our team reached Mansehra and started a mental health camp. There were frequent aftershocks there in those days,” he said.

Discussing the case of APS attack in December 2016, the psychiatrist says that the NGO had contacted the authorities and offered to provide counselling to 50 families of the APS children who had died in the terrorist attack.

“The APS attack did not only affect the parents of the schoolchildren, it also affected the mental health of the journalists who covered the attack. We provided counselling to 50 families and some journalists free of charge. Those receiving the treatment were mostly from the surrounding areas,” he says. His team later wrote a research paper on the APS attack victims and their treatment. It was published in an international publication.

Talking about good mental health, Dr Mufti says he always urges people to go to a park for a morning walk. “I myself walk for at least 5 kilometres daily in the morning,” he says.

To ensure good mental health, he advises what he calls a ‘psycho-socio-spiritual therapy’, which includes an early to bed and early to rise routine, physical exercise for at least 15 minutes a day, praying, dedication to one’s profession and work, and spending time with one’s family.