Mental Health – Support, Strengthen, Sustain

Your child is usually talkative, but they seem quiet lately. They’ve been having a tough time at school, leaving them easily flustered, irritable and isolating themself. You can see they’re struggling and need support. The truth is, we all get thrown into tough situations in life, which test our mental health. 

But what does Mental Health truly mean? 

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as a state of well-being in which an individual realizes their own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to their community. It includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing how one thinks, feels, and behaves.

Mental Health Challenge

Life’s ups and downs are inevitable, and we navigate them through our ability to analyse, decide and act. When we’re unable to do that, and feel stuck or held back, that’s a mental health challenge. Does that mean, we have to be “fine” all the time? Not at all! It’s human to feel all emotions – happiness, sorrow, anger and anxiety. Learning to manage and regulate them, helps us address challenges with clarity and hope. It’s an ongoing process.

This means that our mental health is fluctuating through the day and through the week. There are good days, and bad days. But when bad days are prolonged, frequent and hard to bounce back from, it’s something to be concerned about. Initially these bad days seem subtle and can easily be dismissed as stress, fatigue, or just a "bad mood," but if they persist for more than a couple of weeks or significantly impact daily life, they warrant attention.

Mental health is often assumed to be a private matter - it's not! Our mental health, good or bad, does affect those in our circle.

Conversation, Communication & Awareness

If children are anxious about their upcoming exams, parents would find themselves walking on eggshells. The same applies to people around those who have anxiety issues, depression, panic attacks and so on. That’s why conversations around mental health, emotional awareness and communication skills are important.

Thankfully, these conversations are finally gaining traction. Influencers are sharing their mental health journeys, workplaces are prioritizing employees' mental health, and queries related to this are among the top 10 searches on the internet. Yet, there is a massive gap in the number of people needing mental health support, and those who’re actually seeking it.

Why?

Because people don’t understand mental health support and what to expect out of it. A mental health professional can be a counsellor, therapist or a psychiatrist. And therapy is the most common, easily accessible intervention available - a process that involves talking through experiences, feelings, and thoughts to gain a better understanding of oneself and develop coping mechanisms for emotional, psychological, or behavioural issues. This means learning new skills to manage stress, improve relationships, or change negative thought patterns.

Therapy & Therapists

Therapy helps adults and children sail through tricky situations. Educators and parents alike increasingly agree on the need for awareness and support, especially when they cannot address certain challenges themselves.

Therapists are not paid friends, who just listen and tell what to do. Therapy is an interactive process guiding and empowering clients/patients to find their own solutions.

Emotional Resilience

Students, parents and educators come with distinct concerns to a mental health expert -

• Students deal with low self-esteem, anger, anxiety, fear of failure, and exam stress. 

• Parents struggle with relationship issues, social anxiety and burnout. 

• Teachers struggle in handling their mental well-being, children’s challenging behaviours and work stress. 

The answer to all these concerns is emotional resilience - the ability to handle stress and stay balanced when life gets tough. It's a skill we learn and get better at, and one of the ways to do that is through therapy.

The Misconception

Many people have a misconception that being "emotionally resilient" means being tough, unaffected, or even emotionless. In reality, emotional resilience is the ability to face life’s challenges through the full range of human emotions.

We can feel angry, sad, scared, confused or frustrated, and still weather the storms of life without falling apart. We can do so by acknowledging how we feel about our situation, learning from it and finding a way forward. Sadly, this push to “be brave” and “not cry” makes it harder for children to develop emotional maturity, and confuses them to think that resilience means hiding their feelings. For educators, the pressure to build ‘resilience’ in children without giving them the proper tools and training to teach it authentically, adds to the burden.

This misunderstanding of emotional resilience, the idea that showing vulnerability is a weakness, creates a huge challenge, especially for today's children. They have access to so much information, but lack the skills to handle the overload, which leaves them feeling increasingly anxious and easily susceptible to peer pressure. They might acknowledge peer pressure but get carried away because they haven't learned how to manage that internal pressure or say 'no.' We need to help them learn how to talk about their feelings and think for themselves by keeping conversations interactive. Let’s connect with them and not just correct them.

Conclusion

Ensuring mental well-being for our children is a shared responsibility between parents, educators and the school management.

• For Parents - Make home a judgment-free safe space for children’s feelings. Learn healthier ways to handle your own emotions - children learn by watching. Carve out daily time to truly connect, share, listen and learn from each other.

• For educators - Go beyond academics by integrating socio-emotional learning. Normalise sharing feelings and asking for help. Onboard mental health professionals to guide staff and children on mental health.

• For School Management - Prioritize mental health as much as academic success in policies and budgeting. Invest in visible, accessible, and adequately staffed counselling services. Prioritize teacher well-being, recognizing their crucial role, and make it clear and easy for students and parents to access support.