The malayalam movie star Fahad Fazil (of Bangalore Days and Aavesham fame) had made news when he revealed that he’s been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) at the age of 41. It wasn’t news to some but many others wondered what this actually means and why it was a big deal. I think it was among the biggest advancements made in mental health awareness in Kerala. At least many people came to know what ADHD is and how it affects people, and that mental health not something that needs to be pushed under a rock. It is a big deal because any talk of mental health has always been a hard taboo in Kerala, on the lines of sex or LGBTQ+.
The Malayali society has always been extremely unaccommodating and even hostile to anyone or anything it considers is not behaving according to its very set standards of conformism. In other words, any of the “others” who are not deemed to be fitting into what the Malayalee considers to be “normal” need to be excluded from mainstream society. All those non-conformists are often ridiculed, bullied and threatened that they either suppress themselves or exclude themselves to the fringes of the society. And the exclusionists then glorify themselves as the keepers of the country and society from destruction and so on. And mental health is one of those “taboo” subjects as are things like pre-marital sex or taking the bus to work if you have a car.
When you say “mental health” the immediate reaction of most Malayalees will be on the lines “Oh no! Dangerously violent humans with no control over themselves that will attack anyone nearby!” Yeah, somewhat like zombies. Our society has this stereotyped, single-track view that stigmatises any mental health affliction as “madness. Anyone afflicted with any of the broad spectrum of psychiatric or psychological afflictions are denounced to be unable to function like “normal people”, and must therefore be avoided and kept away from mainstream society and public life, out of sight and out of mind. It is deemed that there is something inherently wrong with them that cannot be fixed. It is telling that the most common derogatory terms in the Malayalam language (വട്ട്, ഭ്രാന്ത്, മന്ദബുദ്ധി, തലക്ക് ഓളം) are all related to poor mental health, as are places like Oolampara and Kuthiravattom that house mental health facilities.
What many still don’t realise is that this “madness” or clinical insanity is an extremely rare disease. However, more than half of our society are afflicted with mental health conditions that are not as visible as insanity. If they would, half of our people, even those who seem to be visibly fine from the outside can be diagnosed with depression, anxiety, autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, etc. Some of these can be fatal if left untreated. However it is not that easy.
Many people in Kerala are reluctant to even accept mental health as a medical discipline. Nobody tries to understand what mental afflictions are and what the people afflicted with them are going through, not even your closest ones. What they try to do instead is downplay, ridicule, ignore, exclude and even victim blame them. For instance, when you would want to say that you are “depressed”, trying to get people to listen to you, you will get laughed at. Hell, even the Malayalam word for depression (വിഷാദരോഗം) doesn’t seem to take it seriously.
“You are just sad. Everyone feels sad. Think positively and it will go away”
“You are just making up excuses to sit around doing nothing.”
“You young people and your newfangled fashion diseases.”
“Such things are invented by Big Medicine to make money.”
“Your generation is too pampered. We didn’t have any of these so-called problems while we were young!”
I have even heard people calling ADHD and Depression “woke” diseases. Apparently, as per our hypermasculine standards, you just cannot be “weak of mind” because that means you are “chicken” and cannot stand up for yourself, which makes you, well a target to be trampled over.
In more developed parts of the world, going to therapy or taking medications for mental health is absolutely normal and not considered something worth even talking about. Here though, you can’t even dare you mention that you are seeing a Psychiatrist. Just the case of visiting a mental health practitioner has been stigmatised to such an extent that you and your family will be as good as ostracised. Yes, even today. “I heard she is taking ‘the pill'”, or “Yes, he goes to the shrink often”. Most people would steer clear of wanting to been acquainted with them.
All put together, in such a situation, people will be reluctant to seek help for even the simpler mental afflictions. How does one even start to attempt to seek help in such an environment? Who do they dare to talk to when even their family and friends ridicule them and try to push them away instead of supporting them? Are the helplines and counselling reliable and safe? Will it be expensive? In the end people fall for frauds (“all metal health issues can be resolved at the cheapest rate, call us!“) or opportunists (“join our glorious community and everything will be alright!“) or even worse, consult shady people and only get worse. It is not that mental health experts are unavailable in Kerala, there are excellent and learned practitioners but people shy away from consulting them for all the reasons mentioned above.
It isn’t very ironical that all these thriving stereotypes surrounding mental health in Kerala society were perpetuated by indeed, the movies. Those great classics of the late 80s and early 90s like Chitram and Ulladakkam probably gave most Malayalees their first and only exposure to mental health. It is worth noting how mental patients and treatment procedures are depicted in them. Patients are either dangerously violent sub-humans who need to chained and isolated or as clownish buffoons providing comic relief. And of course, the moment anyone is diagnosed with a mental issue, they are immediately wrestled onto a table by bouncers and brutally subjected to high-voltage shock treatments. The movies are mostly fatalistic, which mean that the characters never recover from their illness and end in tragedy. The public with little proximity to actual mental health practice (unlike medical practice) continue to believe that this is real.
Malayalam movies have in recent times come out with a number of socially important narratives that have in no small way helped to challenge socially-entrenches narratives ranging from women’s issues to religion (The Great Indian Kitchen, Kaathal – The Core, All We Imagine As Light, Aattam, Android Kunjappan and even Trance, C U Soon, Vikruthi, etc.) but there’s been nothing forthcoming about mental health. Hopefully there will be. Movies can be a powerful agent of change and it is only just that it is used for good. However, the foundational push needs to come from the government. Public media can work best as an omni-channel amplifier.
It is undeniable that Kerala has made massive strides in many social and economic fields especially in matters like gender equality and casteism. However, most of our outlook on mental health is still stuck in the 1980s. While our governments have been working on improving many social indicators, sadly there’s nothing forthcoming about improving or changing public perception on mental health. Visiting mental health practitioners should be normalised just like how we visit regular doctors or dentists. Counselling and therapy should be encouraged as part of daily life and should be made available as part of policy in schools, colleges and corporate settings. There should be programs to educate people to identify mental health issues (depression is not being ‘sad’, and ADHD is not being just ‘hyperactive’) before it all gets worse. Old-age dogma and culturally encrusted viewpoints should be broken away for society to grow. A healthy society is not just physically fit, but more so importantly, mentally too. And for a healthy mind we need awareness and help
P.S.: There’s always been a rash of student suicides in Kerala. Children suffer from intense stress due to pressure from all sides to perform and stay ahead in the educational rat race. I believe that the lack of mental health awareness and counselling is a chief reason for all this. A lot of these kids are clinically depressed but nobody knows it (“He’s just tired/sad”) so they never get help and horror ensues. All the more the urgency to impart mental health awareness programs. “Thinking positive” won’t do shit.
P.P.S.: Please take care before you judge others on what they do or what they are. You have no idea what they are going through. Please be kind.
Cover photo courtesy of Maisa Borges from Pexels.
