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Dr. Prerna Kohli, a renowned clinical psychologist and advisor to the National Commission for the Protection of Civil Rights, in an exclusive talk with the G20 spoke about the mental health problems prevalent in India. Excerpts:
Q. Could you share with us how your journey has been so far?
TO. As a practicing psychologist with more than 25 years of experience, I have had the opportunity to have counseled more than 10,000 cases. My first and foremost goal is to remove the stigma associated with mental health. Diabetics, heart patients and even cancer patients openly discuss and share their journey, and their families do not feel shame or stigma about these diseases, even friends and family support and understand them. On the other hand, if someone is suffering from depression, there is a concerted attempt to hide it. The person is perceived to be weak and the people around them look at them with contempt. This to me is completely unacceptable, just as no one chooses to be infected with cancer, no one chooses to be depressed. Patients with depression need and deserve much-needed support, love, and medical treatment.
Q. You are doing a very unique all-important work in the prisons, in the prisons of Gurgaon, Tihar and Aligargh. Tell us something about it.
TO. All human beings are the same, nobody is good or bad, it is the circumstances that push them to crime. Only tiny percentages are actual psychopaths and sociopaths, those with antisocial personality disorder are a minority, most offenders are young people who were in bad company, had no good role models, or were pushed into a life of crime . for poverty.
I, along with some colleagues, also run an NGO in Aligarh to train inmates so that they can earn a living once they are released from prison.
While counseling Tihar inmates (some who were in jail for heinous serious crimes like rape, murder, etc.), he saw untapped talent, some of them were amazing cooks, singers, performers, actors and dancers. We always ask, if we as a society fail these young people by not providing them with adequate opportunities. Once released from confinement, almost everyone returns to jail, as the outside world provides no opportunities for them.
Q. What is your eminent expert opinion on the mental health problems of the present and next year?
TO. The real pandemic we face as a society is mental health. Every 3-4 minutes, someone in India commits suicide. Every hour a student commits suicide in our country. It is estimated that one in four women and one in seven men in India suffers from a mental health problem. Yet we, the proverbial ostriches, are focusing our money, our resources elsewhere. Top-down government needs to focus our collective energy on mental health.
Q. I ask you, look at the 4 women closest to you, your wife, mother, sister, daughter, of the four, one of them suffers from a mental health problem like depression, is this enough wake-up call for you ?
TO. Hold heart-based workshops and conferences at schools, universities, and businesses. What does all this imply?
In the 25 years that I have been working as a psychologist, each patient who has come to me for treatment, in their own way, expressed only one thing. That is Dr. Kohli, how can I be happy? Sooner or later, we all realize that a bigger car, a bigger house, a vacation abroad, fancy clothes, expensive jewelry give us momentary joy, but not lasting happiness. Each of us will face challenges in life such as death, financial loss, illness, etc. We need to develop the resilience and emotional and mental strength to accept these setbacks and continue.
