Youngsters unable to cope with heartbreaks, says helpline data

Mumbai: Heartbreak seems to the major reason, apart from depression, why callers dial helplines. Going by the suicide prevention helpline run by Vandrevala Foundation, as many as 2,617 of the 32,000 calls (roughly eight per cent) it received in 2011were about break-ups. the number one mental illness in the city is depression, followed by relationship problems relating to romance.

The Foundation that works towards mental health awareness compiled data on all calls on its helpline in 2011.that saw a majority of its callers in the city suffering from depression.

Apart from the top two complaints, anxiety, mental strain, obsessive compulsive disorders, phobias and sleeping disorders were the most common reasons for dialling the 24-hour helpline (1860-266-2345 and 022-2570 6000). Of the more than 32,000 calls that help line got in 2011, as many as 2,890 were from people were suffering from depression whereas 8, 982 were from those with symptoms of phobias, eating disorders, sexual problems and somatic disorders where people complain of aches and discomfort without there being any medical basis to it.

Suicidal tendencies were another issue that was high with 400 callers and before that Vandrevala Foundation had 461 callers who are into substance abuse. Callers related to work and occupational problems was 304 and most of them tend to call after losing a job to learn how to cope with it.

Dr Arun John, executive vice president, Vandrevala Foundation at Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, says, “The call volume in one year has increased as more people are aware of helpline numbers and how it can benefit them. The anonymity that a helpline provides callers is what makes them discuss their problems at length.”

“A person with suicidal thoughts basically just needs a hand to hold on to and if he/she has someone to talk to who won’t judge or pull them down it makes a huge difference. As suicide is usually an impulsive act, in several cases, we have convinced distressed callers not to take such drastic steps. It was only this one time we got to know a college student committed suicide despite our attempts,” added Dr.John.

People suffering from physical illnesses and disability also used the helpline with 286 callers last year. Strong unreasonable beliefs or superstitions were another factor high among callers with 438 such cases observed in Vandrevala Foundation. Behavioural problems were noticed in 188 callers and hallucinations and delusions among 192 of them.

A team of trained counsellors and psychiatrists handle the helpline round the clock and across the state. Callers on the helpline range from students undergoing stress due to exams to lonely senior citizens who just need someone to talk to. Each caller’s details are carefully documented by the foundation and are treated as confidential.

Several callers start using the helpline frequently to receive help when in distress. In many instances, people who have just lost a job or about to appear for an important exam call up the helpline asking for guidance and a listening ear.Other issues such as vulnerability, self harm, living conditions, activities of daily life (220 callers), child protection and cognitive problems were also recorded in the data.

Dr.Harish Shetty, psychiatrist at LH Hiranandani hospital, said, “Helplines are very effective in helping people with mental illness and suicidal tendencies. This one time a man called our helpline threatening to jump into Powai lake as he owed a lot of money to some people. We not only convinced the man not to take such a drastic step but also spoke to his money lenders and requested them to go easy on him.”

“Several times we have conversations that are last for one or two hours to help people in distress,” added Dr.Shetty.

(This the fourth and final installment in the series on mental health issues)

Karaoke Night

So,i decided instead of sitting at home on a Sunday,doing nothing just because i have an off i should do something fun for a change! I ended up at an expensive nightclub where a karaoke championship was being held. Not a very shabby night, but the place was overpriced and it got boring when contestants chose to sing love songs. Soooo,here’s my half assed write up on it.

While most people look at karaoke as a platform for half drunk pub goers who awkwardly sing to their favourite songs as their friends cheer them on, there are a few in the city who look at it as an opportunity to display their singing talents.

 These karaoke enthusiasts in the city were in for a huge treat on October 7, as the Karaoke World Championship’s final round was held in Palladium Mall where 27 participants from across the country tried their best to woo the judges. The venue was packed with people till around 1.30am as the winners, who would represent India in Finland, were declared by the end of the event.

 The contestants, who were dressed to the nines, performed to songs ranging from love songs to rock ones and succeeded in keeping the audiences engaged with their singing as well as performance skills. Many of these contestants had a group of friends present in the audience for moral support and to even act as cheerleaders.

 The contestants were judged on their ability not only to sing but crowd interaction, costumes and stage presence. The winner in the male category, Faizan Khurshid from Kolkata, who entered the venue with a huge scarf covering his face, sang English rock band, Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. The contestant, who was known as ‘the underdog’ in the competition, managed to pull off one of Queen’s toughest songs flawlessly. Khurshid had painted his face red and black, and enacted the lyrics of Bohemian Rhapdosy in a musical style.

 Sharvari Deshpande from Mumbai, winner under the female’s category, sang Christina Aguilera’s ‘Tough Love’. Though the judges criticised her for her bad choice in costume, she managed to woo them with her flawless sur and taal. The two winners also get to enjoy return flights and accommodation in a luxurious chalet for six days while in Finland.

 Other contestants who stood out were two women from Mumbai who performed to American pop star Lady Gaga’s songs. The contestants had gone up to the lengths of keeping their performance in sync with Gaga’s extravagant dressing style, which helped them bag the runner-up position. Another contestant sang Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ impeccably while a male senior citizen kept the audience grooving to ‘Mustang Sally’ by Mack Rice.

 The judges of the event were actor Javed Jaffrey, singer Manasi Scott, music directors Raju Singh and Sulaiman Merchant. A group of four college students who performed to The Beatle’s ‘Hey Jude’, will be accompanying the two winners to Finland to cheer for them whilst enjoying free accommodation and tickets to Finland. Only two groups were competing for these perks at the championship. The sole group competing against the other one at the Karaoke Championship were a group of four girls from Kolkata who sang Jamelia’s hit song ‘Superstar’.

Toilet Graffiti

Female commuters travelling in the first class compartments of harbour line trains have noticed a new trend of ‘toilet graffiti’ type of drawings on the seats and walls of the compartment of late.

 Much to their disgust, several woman commuters have noticed drawings of the female body across seats and walls on which several obscene comments are scribbled along with a phone number. While most female commuters choose to ignore it, these mischievous youths armed with their sketch pens have started getting more creative with their sexual drawings which include graphic details of sexual acts.

 These miscreants manage to get away as they enter the compartments after 10pm when the first class women’s compartment is usually deserted because of which they never get caught red-handed.

Banter

Women commuters who work in the graveyard shift will always warn you against travelling in the first class compartment of trains after 9pm for the simple reason that it is usually empty and hence, unsafe. Men entering the first class women’s compartment and harassing a woman isn’t unheard of in the city.

 At around 9.30pm on Saturday, a drunk, homeless man entered the women’s compartment of a Panvel-bound train at Sewri station. The two women sitting in the compartment chose to ignore the drunkard instead of telling him to get down at the next station out of fear.

 The homeless man, who reeked of alcohol, stood next to the compartment’s door yelling at no one in particular and started pacing up and down the compartment restlessly to the women’s horror, who by then had put away their mobile phones and were watching the hysterical man, wondering if they should take the risk of confronting him or not.

 The man then held on to the flimsy wire mesh by the compartment’s door and started dangling off the entrance dangerously. However, he didn’t bother alighting the train at the next few stations. Commuters from other compartments gaped at him nervously through the wire mesh, afraid he would eventually fall off the train. That was when a railway police man who was in the next compartment yelled at the drunkard, warning him to get off the train at the next station to which the man hoarsely replied he wouldn’t.

 He was then pulled out of the train by GRP officials at Wadala station who gave him a good thrashing for creating such a scene.

Urban stress taking the zing out of sex lives

Sachin (named changed) was going through a lot of stress at his workplace and was also facing a financial crisis. He started avoiding sex and any other form of intimacy with his wife for four months as he was suffering from erectile dysfunction and was too embarrassed to discuss it with his wife.

That was when the couple approached a psychiatrist and he started receiving treatment for depression, which turned out to be the main culprit behind his sexual problem.

The stress of living in a big city and its attendant problems of anxiety and depression have started taking a toll on Mumbaikars’ sex lives. Sex therapists say there has been a rise in the number of sexual dysfunctional problems, ranging from a decreased libido to premature ejaculation with 75% to 80% of these cases being essentially psychological in nature.

A sexual problem or dysfunction refers to a difficulty experienced by an individual or couples in experiencing satisfaction from sexual activity. This includes desire, arousal or orgasm.

Mental issues such as stress, anxiety, panic disorders are the main causes that affect one’s sexual performance. In some cases, it is guilt because of strong religious views that treat sex as a sinful activity. However, depression, along with the daily stress of an urban lifestyle has been cited as the main culprit.

Doctors in the city see at least ten male patients every week with most complaining of problems such as premature ejaculation, sexual desire disorders and some erectile dysfunction cases.

”Depression directly leads to decline in interest in various activities that even includes sex. This loss of interest and energy in that depressed individual can lead to impotence,” said Dr Prakash Kothari adding that after depression, anxiety is the most common cause that paralyses one’s sexual response.

”Be it anxiety over a sexual situation or even otherwise, one tends to develop negative feelings towards sex that results in failure to perform and that failure causes fear, guilt and shame in that person. Such conflict of emotions result into an erectile dysfunction problem,” he added.

Stating that depression causes a chemical imbalance in an individual’s brain, Dr Gurvinder Kalra, psychiatrist and sex therapist at MGM hospital said, “The neuro-chemicals decrease in a person’s brain when s/he is suffering from depression. Due to a decrease in dopamine and serotonin, a person’s sexual desire tends to go down. Symptoms of depression such as psychomotor retardation that causes a loss of energy makes that patient increasingly disinterested in sex.”

Anxiety disorders also cause erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation in patients. In the case of women, anxiety or fear of intercourse deters them from achieving an orgasm.

Another reason why people are suffering from a low sexual desire is due to low testosterone levels that is being observed in men off late and low estrogen levels in women. Doctors, however, are yet to determine the main reason behind this disturbing trend where an increasing number of people are experiencing decreased libido. However, anti-depressants are also known to decrease libido in several cases.

Dr Swapnil Deshmukh, a consultant in Psychiatric and Sexology society of Pune, said, “A person suffering from sexual problems starts feeling all the more anxious and worthless due to his/her inability to perform sexually and this leads to a vicious cycle that accelerates that person’s feeling of worthlessness.”

(This is the third in a series on mental health awareness)

Somatic disorders most common after depression

Psychiatrists in public hospitals say they see a variety of mental ailments ranging from depression to phobias. While depression is the most common disorder, somatic disorders, a condition in which a patient has physical symptoms that involves more than one body part but no physical cause can be found by doctors, is the second most common.

Patients suffering from somatic disorders most commonly complain of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) which causes discomfort in the abdomen, bloating and even constipation, other symptoms include physical problems such as impotence, headache and pain in different parts of the body.

Bipolar disorder is another mental illness that is commonly treated in public hospitals with 2-3 severe cases being observed on a weekly basis. A patient suffering from a very severe case of bipolar disorder was immediately admitted to Nair hospital after being brought to the OPD department on Wednesday. Bipolar disorder is a condition in which a person experiences extreme mood swings ranging from euphoria to depression. The mood swings between such mania and depression is very quick.

”We see two to three cases of bipolar disorder a week as it isn’t as common as depression or somatic disorders. However, that particular patient is suffering from type II bipolar disorder and had to be admitted,” said Dr Alka Subramanyam, assistant professor of Nair hospital.

Government hospitals like Sion hospital, KEM and Nair hospital see about 20-25 new patients in the OPDs daily and around hundred more patients who frequent the psychiatry out patient department for follow-up treatments. Four to five fresh cases of depression are treated in these hospitals with most patients ranging between the age groups of 18-35.

At KEM, doctors saw a patient who uses five to six kgs of detergents and soaps on a daily basis for cleaning everything around her. “We are now treating her for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) using medication and therapy,” said Dr Shubhangi Parker, head of the psychiatry department.

Psychosis disorders such as schizophrenia and neurotic depression comprise of 50% of the patients in public hospitals, she said. OCD is an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated behaviors that make them feel driven to do something.

Another mental disorder commonly seen in the city is phobia, which is a type of anxiety disorder that causes a persistent fear of an object or situation to which a person goes through extreme lengths in avoiding it that is considered irrational. “A patient had approached us with cynophobia, which is fear of dogs, and we treated her by using systematic desensitisation therapy in which she was made to imagine certain scenarios with a dog and her proximity to it,” said Dr Kranti Kadam, assistant professor of KEM Hospital.

”We first make the patient go through scenes in their head in which they are at a relatively safe distance from their source of fear and then gradually start progressing to stages where they have to confront it. This enables them to come to terms with their irrational fears and slowly get over it,” added Dr Kadam.

Commenting on the phobia cases observed at Sion hospital, Dr Gurvinder Kalra, former assistant professor of the hospital, said, “Phobia cases per se are not as common as agoraphobia – fear of open and crowded places – along with a panic disorder. We seen at least one patient suffering from panic attacks because of agoraphobia every other day.”

”Some people tend to find crowded platforms in railway stations overwhelming and suffer from a panic attack because of an underlying anxiety disorder,” added Dr Kalra.

(This is the second in a series on mental health awareness)

Loss of energy & motivation is a sign of depression

This was the article that I’d written for the newspaper I work with, Free Press Journal, for World Mental Health Day.

Dr Gurvinder Kalra, psychiatrist at Vashi’s MGM Hospital, sees four cases daily where relatives bring the patient complaining that he/she is simply vegetating.

Mumbai :If someone in your family or friend circle loses interest in routine activities such as getting out of bed, taking a shower, going for a walk, etc, chances are that he/she could be suffering from depression, say psychiatrists on the eve of World Mental Health Day.

“General slowing down of movements and a loss of energy is a classical symptom of depression,” said Dr Shubhangi Parkar, head of the psychiatry department in KEM Hospital.

Psychomotor retardation, as the symptom is called, involves a slowdown in an individual’s movements and thought processes. It is more commonly seen in people of all age groups suffering from moderate to severe depression, as their body feels heavy. Other neuro-vegetative symptoms of depression include reduced appetite, disturbed sleep patterns and low sex drive.

Individuals experiencing symptoms of psychomotor retardation are confused by their inability to perform mundane activities that require mobility such as shopping, meeting the demands of work or school, going about with household chores and even taking care of themselves.

”When a person is diagnosed with depression it shouldn’t be taken lightly and if symptoms of psychomotor retardation is seen in any patient, anti-depressants and psychotherapy are used to treat it,” added Dr Parkar.

Dr Gurvinder Kalra, psychiatrist at MGM Hospital, who sees four such cases daily, said that psychomotor retardation tends to go undetected and is usually seen in moderate to severe depression.

”Family members of depressed patients complain about the patient becoming lazy and not doing anything throughout the day but seldom do they realise that the main cause behind that person being unproductive is depression,” said Dr Kalra.

These symptoms of psychomotor retardation are also common in cases of bipolar disorder, where extreme mood swings can be seen and schizophrenia, where the patient loses touch with reality. However, psychomotor retardation is mostly seen in cases of severe depression when the sensitivity threshold of the individual starts decreasing.

Dr Harish Shetty, consulting psychiatrist at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital, said, “Patients suffering from this symptom usually complain about having difficulty in become motivated which is a characteristic trait of depression. Due to this, in many cases patients are unable to take care of themselves.”

The treatment of psychomotor retardation in moderate to severe depression is anti-depressants along with psychotherapy. In some cases, electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) resolves depression within a few treatments.

Doctors on Call

Indian doctors have taken marketing to a whole new level by roping in PR firms to reach out to the masses to “create public awareness”. In most cases, however, it is usually a way for them to build their own brand as the healthcare sector in India has become increasingly privatised.

Every health reporter in the city is sent at least one ‘story idea’ a day by PR agents who are actually trying to publicise the doctor they are representing. In this way, doctors ensure that their name is published in newspapers at least once a week. A single PR firm represents 5-10 doctors and make it a point to add their quotes regarding certain initiatives and new treatments which will later be added in a seemingly well-balanced articles written by health journalists from different newspapers.

Be it World No Tobacco Day or World Heart Day, a health journalist’s inbox will be flooded with press releases from various PR firms scattered across the city assisting them with doctor’s quotes and contact details. The Medical Council of India (MCI) has banned doctors from advertising or soliciting clients. However, doctors, who have always been known as shrewd businessmen, seemed to have turned to PR agents so as to gain coverage in leading newspapers in the city.

Cheating Death

While people getting crushed by trains has become a routine occurrence in the city, when one manages to escape from the jaws of death at the nick of time, it is nothing less than a miracle.

A man alighting from a Belapur-bound train in Chembur station, slipped into a gap between two compartments. To every bystander’s utmost horror, he managed he get on his feet and stand in between those compartments just while the train was about to leave the platform. Several people yelled out in surprise while the unidentified man stood there with a dazed expression, bracing himself for the worse.

Right at that moment, two alert men rushed to that spot and pulled the disoriented man onto the platform a few seconds before the train gathered momentum and started to leave the platform. The other bystanders who were watching the spectacle with bated breaths let out a sigh of relief, thankful they didn’t have to witness the man getting crushed by the train.

Guarding Dogs

Walking your dog on the streets of Mumbai is more like going to war than having a relaxing stroll with your furry companion. In areas where stray dogs are large in number and territorial pissings a norm to die for, people who own dogs have to arm themselves with a sturdy stick and another person to accompany them to keep the aggressive, alpha dogs at bay.

No sooner does a dog owner and the excited dog walk out of their building compound, they are usually greeted with a symphony of woof woofs and growling noises. A seasoned dog walker manages to ignore these angry canines and strut away with their fancy pedigree dog but those who dread facing these aggressive strays are often targeted by them as dogs can sense fear. The only option to allow their dog to take a leak or dump outside their building compounds is to force a lazy friend or family member to help keep the dogs at bay.

 Pet dogs being attacked by stray ones is not unheard of in this city. Many dog owners don’t look forward to taking their canine friends out for a walk because of this menace which is unfortunate as the poor dog is always cooped up at home and rarely gets to see the ‘outside world’ unless the dog has to be taken for a medical check-up.