Please don't hurt me..

Even in the modern world a mentally ill person finds himself living in an unsupported and abusive world. He does not get the same recognition a visually handicapped or a physically challenged person gets. It may be partly due to the difficulty in identifying who is normal and who is abnormal and mainly due to our lack of knowledge.
                                                               When i was a small child in our village we had two twin brothers who were mentally ill. They used to have a dis-inhibited behavior and were quite aggressive at times. I was very scared of them. So i used to hide myself if i happen to see them. I have also pelted stones on them a few times. But after my experience with the mentally disturbed persons as a postgraduate student in psychiatry I feel bad that I have behaved more cruelly and aggressively than the two twin brothers.

A mentally ill person is not harmful than any  so called normal person in the outside world who cheats his own wife or mother, kills his trustworthy partner, steals abuses other fellow human beings intentionally  and purposefully clearly knowing what he is doing. To care for a mentally ill person is definitely a tough task but at least we can try not to harm them beat them and tie them to chains. I have seen people being tied to trees beaten with sticks and treated more bad than stray dogs .I have even seen mentally ill persons who are tied to  trees and starved for days eating their own human waste.

What more harm can we do to them than this?

We may not be able to care for him but we can at least guide his care givers to take him to a nearby psychiatric hospital for treatment and try to make the caregivers understand this is an illness like any other and not due to the mentally ill person's previous sins and demonic possessions. Our government has even passed a mental health care bill 2013 which considers the rights of the mentally ill and even gives option for him to choose his treatment mode and punishment for those who run illegal mental-health care establishments. So it is time for we people.

Mental Health Bill 2013 News: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/new-mental-health-bill-decriminalises-suicide/article5045156.ece

Please friends next time you come across a mentally disturbed person being ill-treated try to help and don’t turn a blind eye.

LET’S MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Dr.Bevinsathya.