A friend’s son who is 28 years old is appearing to be going through something mentally. But he is not ready to come for a counselling session. What could be done?
This is a tricky situation. Because, while we may feel that the other person requires a counselling session, the person himself or herself may not realize that they may have to reach out to a mental health professional.
In such a scenario, some people think of bringing the person to a therapist or a psychiatrist forcefully or by telling a lie that they are going to take to a friend of theirs and land up in a mental health clinic. This is not a good idea because the moment the person in concern gets to know that they have been brought without their knowledge to a mental health professional, because of the stigma attached to mental health in general, they would start resisting the process of treatment, whether it is in terms of psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy (giving medication).
So, the chances of backfiring are more than moving towards resolutions. But what could be the way forward in these kinds of circumstances?
Breaking the stigma attached to mental health is not an easy task. It would certainly take quite a long years. However, we should not get deterred by such challenges. We can start speaking about mental health issues openly in our families. When I say, we should start speaking about mental health, it need not be severe disorders like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, dementia, and so on. It could start from understanding one’s emotions and sharing the different types of emotions one experiences at different points in time. When most of the members of the family find it comfortable to share their vulnerabilities without any hindrances, that is the time when the one who is suffering from mental illness would slowly open up. Once they realize that they have some issue and it has to be resolved, then there is no need to ‘convince’ them to reach out to professional help. They have to be channelised. That’s it.
