This Saturday morning students and staff of CCEW attended a Mental Health Webinar by Dr. Swati Desai. The session started with a peaceful meditation session which helped everyone to become aware of their surroundings and concentrate on the webinar.
One of the first slides of Dr. Swati’s presentation provided us information about the actual statistics by the WHO, listing the number of people who suffer from mental health issues, which is a truly shocking number and urges you to address these issues in a proper manner.
Dr. Swati made us aware about the categories of mental health issues and the different types of help we can seek to address them. Her personal opinion was to seek help in a combinational manner, i.e.; both psychiatrically and psychologically(i.e.; a combination of medication and therapy), or any other way which a person feels can help him, be it a group effort, focusing on himself, meditating, watching related YouTube videos or listening to some podcasts or connecting with organisations like, The Art of Living.
She also guided us on how to deal with any friend or family member who is facing any such issue. The key is to not to be judgemental and to patiently listen to them without giving any unwanted advice and encouraging them to seek help if they feel it is necessary.
In her opinion, denial is certainly not an option and whichever method you may choose, it will take time. Dr. Swati was incredibly calm and patient and answered all the questions asked by the attendees.
The session was incredibly informative and interactive and helped everyone realize that if they are dealing with some mental health issue, seeking help is important, be it through any medium and that there is no shame in doing so.
