Are we NORMAL...???

To differentiate what is normal and what is an abnormal human behavior takes a lot of understanding of the human mind. Have we understood that is the real question. Well i will try to explore my experiences as a postgraduate student of psychiatry and try to elaborate the differences to my level of knowledge. After selecting this topic when i was sitting in the hostel balcony i noticed a cat standing on the top of the hostel gate and being confused whether to jump in or jump out. The incident just looked similar to the situation which i was in now after selecting the topic. Well with the sip of our ever reliable energetic coffee of the hostel my neurotransmitters got stimulated and i was full of words. I will like to share with you few of my experiences as a postgraduate student in psychiatry. 

During my first week of joining the course i saw a child around 12yrs coming with his mother for consultation for an alleged consumption of poison. When i asked the reason the boy told he was angry because his mother did not allow him to see cartoon channel because she wanted to see some serials so he consumed the poison. When i asked him where did he get the idea of consuming the poison from he told me that he saw that the previous day in a serial his mother was watching. My next experience was in ward a adolescent girl who was taking treatment for her illness. When i saw her i noticed a mark on her head and i enquired her

mother about that. Her mother told that she took her daughter to a magicoreligious person for some unusual behavior in the girl. He had made a mark on the poor girl's forehead with an iron rod and told the mother that he has chased away the evil spirits which has invaded the girl. From my two experiences I had a doubt now that who is abnormal here. Well I am not interested to go into the details so i leave it to the readers to decide.

 Today's trend even in the advanced scientific world is people going behind magicoreligious people and spending few thousands before landing to the psychiatrist for proper treatment. The sad part of our busy life is people have forgotten to share their normal experiences with each other. I had such a personal experience during preparing for pg exams. I was so tensed during the last few days before exam so even during sleep I was dreaming about my books and what I have studied before. I was so anxious so i went and used to enquire it to my friends asking indirect questions .If anyone of my friends replied to my expectation i would smile happily in the back of mind "oh god i have company here" but i never revealed it to my friends.

Similarly everyone one of us experience different emotions for different psychological stressors. This is a normal phenomenon. This becomes abnormal when we continue to feel the same emotions and do things which may harm you or harm our caregivers and do things which are not socially acceptable. A person seen to have decreased self-care decreased sleep having an irrelevant talk without any insight into their problems is usually abnormal and they need to consult a psychiatrist as soon as possible. Well as in any field of medicine the sooner the person reports the better is the prognosis. So I kindly request all the readers to educate their peer groups about the awareness of mental health and advice them to consult a psychiatrist as soon as possible .Don’t shy away from any person who is mentally disturbed. Maybe tomorrow anyone of us could also be affected. It is just like a fever or loose stools we experience in our day to day life. Let’s unite together and help them to think and behave normally as any other person.

Let’s make a difference.

Dr. Bevin Sathya.