Battles in the Mind with Anna Chandy

Sometimes, all of us come across silly but funny confusions, like, can one cry under water? , Do fishes ever get thirsty? , why doesn’t glue Stick to its own bottle? In a movie theater which arm rest is yours? so on & so forth.

The session was to explore the unexplored, to understand about our worst enemy & best friend, living between our two ears . We had with us Anna Chandy, a thought leader on Mental Health & a great human being. She has helped counsel numerous people with her own style of counseling & mentoring.

They say, we are all, mostly a sum together of our thoughts added & subtracted continuously by our dear friend, our MIND- quoted Ms. Minal Jain, Chairperson. With Anna, we walked on a road journey lined with invisible Mirrors, where we will saw various reflections & points of references of our lives.

We invited Anna by quoting this-

No pressures, No diamonds! Let’s all remember not everything starts out perfect. Even Diamonds started their journey as Coal.
The session on Battles of the Mind with Anna Chandy (who helped Deepika Padukone come out of depression) was a mental treat. It motivated us to start taking care of our mental health which was of least importance in our lives. She talked about how mental illness (depression, anxiety, stress) can cause irreparable complications in one’s life. The rate with which it is increasing, it will be an epidemic by 2020. Here is the synopsis of how we can boost our mental Health and enrich our thought process.

HER STORY : Her own battle of mind was ” should I speak up or Remain silent” . She was a child of a dysfunctional relationship, her life looked black , inadequate and a complete psychological mess. She wouldn’t speak up in the class even when she knew the answers. It took her 22 years of therapy to finally speak up.

Her career : When the therapy started ; her lenses started changing . She is so successful in her work today because she can relate to pain. She could see through the veneer of anyone’s smile.

She helped Deepika come out of depression and after that Deepika started a campaign to break the stigma of mental health. She shared her vulnerability to the world and became the major influencer through her Live Love Laugh foundation. They also created a short film called “Doobara Poocho.”
How do we know we our mental health is not perfect?

We human beings are like pressure cookers. If we don’t periodically vent or express what is going on inside we end up in a psychological mess. So in a condition when there is an outburst we must realize that there is something wrong.

Mental health is the second largest cause of economic loss in India and yet very small share in national budget 0.02percent! Indian average age is 31.5 years – mental health issues strike the young – yet we are not giving it enough attention as a country!

What are the various stages of getting mental illness?

We must watch out how we are behaving… whether we are reacting or responding. Responding is thoughtful and replying nicely whereas reacting is like snapping. ‘I am not your Servant..it’s not my job ….. ‘ If we say . ‘I am depressed ‘ . That’s the reacting stage. It’s a phase when you are sad and you feel low and you share things with your close circle. People who are injured who have actually reached depression they will never come and tell anyone that they are depressed. If you are in the injured stage as mentioned above that means you need professional help.

People who become mentally ill don’t feel like smiling. They feel terribly low and they have bodily pains .They won’t say this because if they say it they will have to suffer from – Exclusion; Stigma; Shame & Humiliation.