Mental Health in India

Mental health is an important topic that is unfortunately not talked about much in India due to excessive stigma surrounding it. In this website, I explore two areas of mental health: Depressive Disorders (Depression) and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (Differently Abled Children). Depression, anxiety, autism, Down syndrome, and ADHD are all diagnoses found under various categories in the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD 10) and the 5th revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM V). 

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What does depression feel like? What are some contributing factors to depression? What is the stigma surrounding it, and how does that affect those suffering from depression? How do people cope with depression and what does finally getting a diagnosis lead to? All these questions and more will be answered in the Depression tab of the website.

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How do you identify a differently abled child when they are young? How do their parents and society react? How does the child get an education and what is their education path? What resources are available for them and what is the government of India doing? These questions will be answered as we follow the story of Mihir Alexander Samuel in the Differently Abled Children tab of the website.

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Throughout the website, I mention the schooling system in India. If you are unfamiliar with the Indian education system, you may want to start at the Education System in India tab so you can understand some other parts of the story.

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For resources and help, you can jump to the Resources tab, where you will find links to articles and websites that may be helpful for depression and differently abled children. you will also find link and an embed to a crowd-sourced database by iCALL for mental health professionals in India, as well as a crowd-sourced database I started for professionals and schools in India that cater to differently abled children.

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If you would like to know why I created this website or wish to contact me, you can read the About Me tab.

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Navigating this website: 

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If you are a desktop user, you will find an anchor menu on the left of the Depression and Differently Abled Children tab's main page. You can use that to scroll down to whichever chapter or section of the story you want.

 

For mobile users, you will find each chapter or section of the story in its own separate sub-page under the Depression and Differently Abled Children pages for your convenience and so your scroll finger doesn't hurt.

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You can click on galleries to expand them and some images link to other articles (with a link below the photo as well). There are also websites embedded that you may scroll through and read right here, or open in a new window with the link under the embed.

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The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that there is one. I sincerely hope this website serves you well as a resource to shed light on mental health in India.