“How do we know that the mind exists if we can’t see it?” It might sound a bit like the old debate on the existence of God but the fact that the question was even raised is itself a proof of the mind’s existence. The “mind” is nothing but brain activity. From thinking to reasoning, feeling, analysing, each of the tasks is done by none other than the brain (no surprises here).

To answer the aforementioned question, “We can’t see our thoughts but we know we’re thinking, right?” From analysing the given question to thinking about the answer, focusing on the thoughts to finally typing it out, it’s all the mind’s or the brain’s work. Like all parts of our body, our brains have certain functions some that we are conscious of, some that we are not. The conscious aspect of brain activities is termed as the mind.

We have often heard that a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. Keeping this phrase in mind, it can be argued that if something is healthy, it also has the alternative quality of being unhealthy.  

If you agree with the previous statement, I have a situation for you –  You were out in the rain. You come home and sneeze a couple of times but don’t think much about it because you don’t experience any other symptoms of common cold. The next day, you have a running nose and a sore throat. What do you do? You try home remedies like having warm drinks, steam inhalation and so on. The scene skips to when you have a high fever that hasn’t gone down in 3 days and you feel so weak that you can’t do even the simplest of chores. What do you do? You consult a doctor and take the prescribed medicines.

Whatever you do you keep trying to heal yourself. Why? Darwin gave us the answer years ago. You have to stay fit in order to survive. If you’re willing to put in so much effort into maintaining your physical health, then why not take a little effort to keep your mind healthy as well? Like all parts of our body, even our brains are susceptible to diseases and imbalances that can be diagnosed, treated and prevented with care.

The Oxford Dictionary describes mental illness as “a condition which causes serious disorder in a person’s behaviour or thinking.” Mental illness is a very generic term for a large variety of disorders that could affect a person’s psychological well-being.

Now let me give you the second situation – You have had a very bad day at work. You come home and feel sad about it but let it go because it’s not worth the worry. Change in the scene where you’ve been feeling low for a couple of days at a stretch but you know the “home remedies” of how to cheer yourself up. Scene change to a week later when you’re still feeling sad, sometimes blank but you cannot pinpoint on a specific event that has made you feel this way. Things have become so bad that you don’t feel like interacting with anyone, and now you don’t even have the energy to get out of bed and go to work. You’re unable to “snap out of it”. What do you do?

Please go visit your nearest mental health professional. If you don’t know any personally, consult your physician. They will be able to give you more specific information and guidance with regard to whom to contact and how to go about with the treatment. If you know someone who is suffering from a mental illness, please be patient with them. Encourage them to go see a psychologist. Do not disregard their condition as a “cheap act for gaining attention” and ask them to “snap out of it”. If it were that easy, incidents of self-harming and suicides would not have been so common. Trust me, they want to get out of it more than you know. 

 

Be kind; it does save lives.