Ludhiana, March 14
Even as one in five persons experiences a mental health issue at some point in their lifetime and mental ailments affect people of all ages, in all kinds of jobs and educational levels, there is a great stigma surrounding mental health problems.

Dr Paramjeet Singh Khurana, consultant neuro-psychiatrist and drug de-addiction specialist at Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital says here, "When individuals appear to be different, we attach a stigma to them; we do not do it to be cruel, but we simply do not understand their differences. Stigma is a reality for people with a mental health issue and their greatest barrier to a complete and satisfying life."

In a community mental health lecture here last evening, he observed, "Society feels uncomfortable about mental health problems and these are not seen like other problems such as heart disease and cancer. Due to inaccuracies and falsehoods, people have been led to believe that an individual with a mental health issue has a weak character or is potentially dangerous. However, mental health problems only become visible when someone is in a crisis. The majority of the public are unaware of how many people with mental health problems they know and encounter every day."

Blaming the media, especially the movies and television, to a great extent, for projecting a completely distorted image of those with mental health problems, Dr Khurana remarked that most of our views and interpretations of mental health problems have been distorted by media over a period.

"Almost without exception, the mentally ill characters are portrayed as aggressive, dangerous and unpredictable while nearly 70 per cent of the television characters with a mental health issue, are shown to be violent."

He said those physically ill would go to a doctor and once they were better or cured, they would expect to get on with life as usual. However, this was not the case with people who had mental health problems. While everyone had the right to fully participate in their community, the individuals struggling to overcome a mental health issue, often found themselves facing a constant series of rejections and exclusions.

Urging the community leaders to move collectively towards erasing the stigma surrounding mental health problems, Dr Khurana commented that the foremost thing to do was to comprehend the predicament of those with mental health problems and to understand the facts.

"There are times when we all feel depressed, get unreasonably angry or over-excited; we even have periods when we think that everything and everybody is out to get us. For someone with a mental health issue, these feelings do not go away. It should be well understood that no matter how the person develops a mental health issue, there is usually an approach to recovery that will help them get better and lead a productive life. The support of family, friends, colleagues at work places and employers is also critical," he concluded.

Ludhiana, March 14
The annual sports meet at Baba Jaswant Singh Dental College and Hospital, Chandigarh road Ludhiana will be organised from March 15 to 17. According to a press statement issued by the college here today, chairman, Baba Jaswant Singh will inaugurate the meet on Thursday at 11 am.

During this three-day meet, students, interns, faculty and staff members will take part in various events such as football, badminton, cricket, volleyball, throwball, table tennis, chess, carrom besides fun games like tug of war, lemon and spoon race, three-legged race, sack race, frog race etc.

Students will also have the opportunity to display their creative skills in fun activities like rangoli making, fresh-flower arrangement, face painting, poster making and mehandi competition, the note added.