I contacted CareForHealth because I wanted to help people who had gone through what I knew I went through. I managed to work through the issues and pull myself out but everyone isn’t as lucky. I personally feel it is a calling for me. I think if you haven’t been through serious depression yourself, you can’t really empathise with someone who is suffering from it. If you have walked through it then the solution you give is not just two dimensional, you can create a space for someone going through it because you know where they are at. I personally never took any medication for my depression but it is very necessary because as far as our perception of mental health goes, a lot of us tend to believe only what we can see. This it isn’t a physical ailment. It is a an invisible wound. Mental Health issues basically arise when you are going through an experience and are unable to process that experience and then cannot cope with it. We actively suppress a lot of what we are feeling. What that does it is that it keeps the problem alive and unresolved. We try and solve it superficially but not actually deal with it. People tend to consider depression as a character flaw and that is really not right. This is prevalent everywhere in our society. Today we face a huge problem because of this neglect and we need to tackle this head on. This is something I want to do with my life, to cause this shift in society and create more awareness about Mental Health.

Last year, one of my friends made a play to create awareness for mental health issues and I met people from CareFor Health. I was immediately attracted to the idea of what they do- the fact that they go beyond therapy and help get recovered patients get jobs. I wanted to get involved…..

I can’t describe how it feels when we see progress in our patients. One lady who couldn’t even leave her home because she feared she would not be able to find her way back now goes for hour long walks in a park close to her house. This is just after 3 months of therapy. She was such an anxious and depressed person when she joined us. She tells us that she doesn’t see us as counsellors, rather as friends whom she can come confide in. Counselling is really all about compassionate listening. We try and create a safe, non judgemental setting and that’s really the key to have patients open up. They need catharsis. Families of patients tend to believe in black magic and rather go to pir babas to “fix” the problem instead.

I can’t describe how it feels when we see progress in our patients. One lady who couldn’t even leave her home because she feared she would not be able to find her way now goes for hour long walks in a park close to her house. This is just after 3 months of therapy. She was such an anxious and depressed person when she joined us. She tells us that she doesn’t see us as counselors, rather as friends whom she can come confide in. Counseling is really all about compassionate listening. We try and create a safe, non judgmental setting and that’s really the key to have patients open up. They need catharsis. Families of patients tend to believe in black magic and rather go to pir babas to “fix” the problem instead.
“The problem with mental health isn’t just the fact that people suffer from this condition. Even if they are cured and become healthy again, they are forever regarded as ‘damaged’ by society and are not given the opportunity to have a normal life again. No one hires them because they feel they will relapse or are too scared to take the chance, even if the person is completely recovered. This is how I ended up Co-Founding CARE FOR HEALTH where we actually go further than just therapy and try to link organisations that are willing to hire recovered patients and help them regain control of their life.” “You can’t eliminate the problem like that, I feel we are not aware of this as much as we should be and it’s time to change that.”
I contacted CareForHealth because I wanted to help people who had gone through what I knew I went through. I managed to work through the issues and pull myself out but everyone isn’t as lucky. I personally feel it is a calling for me. I think if you haven’t been through serious depression yourself, you can’t really empathise with someone who is suffering from it. If you have walked through it then the solution you give is not just two dimensional, you can create a space for someone going through it because you know where they are at… Today we face a huge problem because of the neglect to mental health and we need to tackle this head on. This is what I want to do with my life.