The right upbringing and mental health 

Himkiran Kaur Sethi

The news of the sudden demise of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput has left the whole country in shock. People are expressing grief and sorrow and considering the importance of mental health after such a talented and successful actor committed suicide.

Mental health includes emotional, psychological and social well-being of an individual. It is a state of well-being where individuals can cope with normal stress of life.

A good mental health helps a person in adapting to the ups and downs in one's life and cope up with the changing atmosphere. Being mentally healthy can help in promoting productivity in work and other activities that one wants to focus upon.

A bad mental health may lead to anxiety, depression, fear, sadness, feel of helplessness and in long term, such disorders may force people to harm themselves, others or even make them suicidal.

“Children are like wet cement, whatever falls on them, makes an impression on them.” Thus, it is important that mental health of an individual is taken care of from childhood only.

A child should be taught how to acclimatize to environment in every circumstance, deal with one's feelings, emotions etc. This will lead to stabilization of mind so that he develops a good mental health and when he grows up he is able to deal with the adversities.

In order to do this, a lion's share of responsibility is on the parents because they are the first society into which a child lives and grooms.

Apart from a balanced diet, adequate sleep, healthy environment, parents should give their time and love to the children, counsel them timely, teach them how to be disciplined and help in building up self-confidence.

It is very important for parents to have a strong and caring bond with children so that they never feel lonely and helpless. Children must know that parents are always available to them. They must encourage children to play outdoor games and interact with environment for having fun and relaxing.

Parents should understand their kids' personalities rather than handing them to babysitters. Use of televisions, phones, tablets should be monitored; A check should be kept on the children's social circle and with whom they interact on and off social media. A difference between materialistic world which teenagers fantasise about and the realistic world should be made clear to them. They should be made aware about the bitter realities of life and thus help them in dealing with real life situations.

Talking about ideas and solutions for difficulties they might face, guiding them well before they start with something new by telling them all the pros and cons and what needs to be done when they feel inferior, helpless or depressed are some of the major areas to focus on by the parents.

The skill of problem solving and recognition of goals should be inculcated by the parents, right from the very beginning of the learning curve of the child.

A child however, must be appreciated for the efforts, and encouraged when  comes with a problem to his parents.

Furthermore, parents can act as a role model for the child by taking care of their own mental health and trying to stay happy and positive while dealing with all circumstances in a calm manner.

Adding to this, they need to be careful about discussing the issues in front of the children which may include financial crisis, conflicts between spouses etc because this could negatively impact the child's character.

Generally, health is not valued much until the sickness comes and therefore parents ignore the mental well-being of their child.

They do not give much time to their children and as the child grows up the gap between them increases. But it's not the parents' at fault alone as children also don't feel free to discuss their problems with their parents.

Most of the times they fall prey to depression and try to harm themselves, or even  adopt unfair means to hide their mistakes.

Besides, teenagers also start abusing drugs, alcohol to overcome sadness but this results into other health problems and if they overdose, they might give up the ghost.

In a jungle, if all of a sudden, a lion comes across an elephant, it has been observed that lion shows no movement but elephant always moves two steps back. The reason behind this is attitude of both the forest dwellers. Lion always has confidence at the back of his mind that he can take on the elephant irrespective of his huge size, whereas an elephant always has in mind that lion can attack him which practically for a single lion is not possible, so the elephant moves back. Thus, we should always behave like a lion and should stay positive against the metaphoric elephant of stress, problems and difficulties.