DEPRESSION AND SINKING FEELING:

By – Pt. Promod K.Nandkishore Sharma

As I am a consulting astrologer & counselor, people come or call me and narrate their stories from their grieved heart. I would like to put forward few of their problems to highlight the seriousness of complications:

“My son was very intelligent. He always stood first in the class but last few years he is not doing well. This year he has failed.”

“My brother always likes to stay at home doing petty household work and watching T.V. He never worked for long in any organization & always gives different reasons for leaving the work. Last few years he has been jobless. We all are worried for his future.”

“My husband is a drunkard. He is always intoxicated. In-spite of bad health he still consumes alcohol. We all have tried our best to stop him from drinking but we have failed. Due to this he is in debt and we always have fight in the family.”

“My son always talks about committing suicide. He is very intelligent & clever. He says that this world is not fit for him and he wants to die. His talks and behavior scares me. Everyone in the family is living on the edge of sword. He was working in a good organization but I am not allowing him to go back to work as we are not confident of him.

“My relation with my husband is very strained. I feel like committing suicide or divorcing him. Every thing was pleasant in the beginning but last few years we have not been living like a normal married couple. Forget about the physical relations he objects my touching too. I am very sure it is not due to some other female in his life but it is his incapability.”

“I am thinking of breaking my marriage and the reason is my mother in-law. She is a widow and my husband is the only child. She cannot go any where else but her presence is making my life a hell. She dislikes our togetherness. Even at night she knocks our bedroom door and disturbs us on the pretext of silly reasons. My husband never takes it seriously. How one can live such a life?”

For a common person all problems mentioned above have a different cause except depression because they are unaware of the symptoms. They assume that all the problems are due to the individual’s weakness but they do not go deep to analyse the root cause.

With fast industrialization and modernization there is a rapid change in the individual’s life. As a result emotional bonding is affected and so is the mental health.

After the result of 10^th & 12^th board exams, the news of suicidal cases of failed students is seen all over the news papers & T.V channels. Suicide rate has drastically increased even in Defence & other Para military forces due to various reasons.

According to W.H.O. statistics, one person commits suicide every 40 seconds. Suicide rates all over the world have increased by 5-62% in the last two decades. Hardly any country is immune to this disease. As many as 1.2 lakh people end their lives every year in India by committing suicide, 86 per cent of them belongs to low and middle income groups. Such an end to human life cannot be accepted. Besides that, more than 4 lakh people attempt to commit suicide. Over 7.5 per cent of the Indian population is facing some sort of mental problem. In the bigger cities, there is great rise in depression in IT professionals. Out of 100 patients, about a dozen belong to IT professionals.

It is a matter of serious concern that more young people are killing themselves than ever before. In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death among those aged 15-44 years of both sexes. Mental disorders (particularly depression and substance abuse) are associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide; however, suicide results from many complex socio cultural factors and is more likely to occur particularly during periods of socioeconomic, family and individual crisis situations e.g. loss of a loved one, employment and honor.

A study of 28 European countries found that depression cost those 118 billion euros in 2004, or one percent of their combined GDP. The cost of treating depression accounted for only 9 per cent of this sum. Richard Layard, of the center for economic Performance at the London School of Economics, has said that mental illness is Britain‘s biggest social problem, costing 1.5 per cent of GDP. He estimates that while treatment may cost £ 750 per patient over two years, the result is likely to be an extra month of work; worth dollar 1880. Layard advocates more psychotherapy rather than drug treatment. In India mostly Psychiatrists prescribe pills for all sorts of mental illness. In problem like mental distress and common disorders like anxiety, mood swings and depression what one needs is someone to listen & give him counseling rather than prescribe pills.

Depression is also costly in developing countries. Depression is common in Zimbabwe, where it is often known by “shona”, word that means, “Thinking too much”.

Some depression appears to be genetic, in which case genetic therapy may offer a solution.

Relaxed, happy people can still become depressed and stressed and unhappy people may not be depressed, but it is a reasonable hypothesis that happier people are less likely to become depressed. With the rise in population & competition, the depression related to stress is bound to increase.

Mental illness still carries a stigma that can make it harder to acknowledge than a physical illness. One feels more comfortable to consult an astrologer than visiting a psychotherapist to get relief from various worries and tension. The use of Vedic sciences can take your autumn of life to new leaves of freshness. The Ekta & Amrita of predictive sciences will build a new spectrum of positive thinking, mental peace and happiness.

The predicting sciences should be used for guiding mankind. People visit an astrologer, palmist etc. when they are totally confused and want to have proper way out & to have mental peace. An astrologer has more insight in the life of a person. If he has a good knowledge of mystic sciences and combining other subjects he can prove to be the best counselor, some time better than a psychotherapist. He can guide the person and let him know that this is not the end of life but after such trial period, life changes for good. With this motivation he will try to live for sunny days. But it is really very sad to know that greedy astrologers scare and confuse people to extract money in different fraudulent ways.

In the present time casual approach towards life will not yield good result. To be very precise, one can take the help of astrology to know the correct field of education, the best profession and the best time to start important things in the life. This way chances of failure will reduce and it will not only save them from depression; but also help them to focus towards their goal.

Human life is a divine gift of the almighty. Its very purpose is to create happiness and joy. Blessed are the souls who can see and live with it. Death comes to all but this is just no way to hasten it due to unnecessary decay of Mind, Body and Soul. Never the less to get the life ruined and finished through depression and that sinking feeling is just no way to let it happen.

We must wake up to this grim reality and save the present generations from this decay.