Mental illness has become an increasing epidemic striking all kinds of ages, ethnicity, gender….it can strike anyone.

A definition of mental hygiene is the art of preserving the mind against all accidents and influences calculated to deteriorate its qualities, impair its energies or derange its movements. Or in other words it is the process of working towards maintaining mental health.

I think modernization has increased mental issues. This is because the world is changing at a faster rate. The modern life is probably becoming incompatible with mental well being for most people. The Technology and globalization that we are living through is probably affecting our communities negatively instead of positively. Communication outlets which includes social media is changing part of our lives so rapidly that it is becoming quite hard to adjust. Our gadgets are overtaking the basing human understanding of a simple genuine conversation towards our fellow human beings.

 According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health includes “subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, inter-generational dependence, and self-actualization of one’s intellectual and emotional potential, among others. WHO further states that the well-being of an individual is encompassed in the realization of their abilities, coping with normal stresses of life, productive work and contribution to their community. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how “mental health” is defined.

We are coping with the society we are in today. It is digital enough. We are forgetting how to check up on the next person next to you without checking our gadgets. Our minds have been geared to comply with gadgets instead of stopping for a minute and carrying out our God given purpose: to take care of each other instead we are gearing towards been away from each other.

Therefore, I think a lot of people are now been affected mentally. There is a gap between the lives that most of us lead, and the gilded lifestyles we have access to via the media, Twitter or Instagram, and aspire to, is bigger than ever before. It has even created a modern anxiety – Fear of missing out syndrome  and we are increasingly trying to make sure we don’t miss out by hooking ourselves to the credit drip.

Our modern life is packed with breathless new pressures that are draining our minds. I envy our past generation because they had little to be pay. As of our today world, we have regular payments on credit cards, store cards, cars and even the smartphones that have perpetuated our ‘always connected’ cycle and extended the reach of the office beyond the traditional nine to five.  This,then arise to anxiety and depression and outcomes that result to these like suicides. Modern lifestyles are simply incompatible with positive mental health for some people – for most people, even. We are extending the fringes of human experience and fraying around its edges.

People are either misinformed or uninformed or  even overinformed. The truth is we don’t know what the truth is anymore. We don’t know what is the correct information because we see and read a lot  .And instead of actually researching truly about it ,we believe it and start throwing opinions about it.We comment a lot about people in social media when we see something about somebody without actually having an actual conversation with them physically .We assume and just do whatever we do in a hurry. Unless you have experienced what, another person has experienced, you should not jump and attack them. After all you are not helping, instead you are just making their mental states worse. The is no need to to focus on something that will make another human being feel bad. Modern life is already making things hard, why make it harder?

We have been blinded by what drives most  of today, greed or ego-driven achievements which some frequently do considerable damage to others. We have isolated ourselves from the things that truly matter which makes other people who seek the important things depressed or sad about it because they are not getting enough of what they really want. It might be a friend to talk to, a person to listen to understand us instead of listening to reply. We take the things that matter to other people lightly and to them they are  deadly serious about. This creates some crossroads in the mind which deteriorate their mental health.

There are so many people who suffer mentally but instead have practiced the good act of putting “an okay face”,that they are just fine. Be concerned! Learn to read in between the lines of somebody’s feelings just like you read and understands all the social media posts, even celebrities like Avicii and Robin Williams suffered mentally and yet they were successful people. All these people who suffer  have ultimate heart of  desires which tragically unknown to them isn’t for wealth but for love, emotional intimacy, unconditional acceptance and self-acceptance and “rich, “satisfying relationships. Regardless of how obscenely wealthy they may become, these are all things that, cannot and should never be purchased with money. They secretly crave for lasting happiness and most importantly some peace of mind.

We should be careful not to teach our children that  its natural to be sad  occasionally. We should let them be kids and form each other’s friendship. We should not instill competition at an early age that we forget to teach them the importance of life, love, moral values, peace and unity. They should be able to talk to each other as if they are going to be best friends forever not rivals in the future.No need!

We do have a problem with us now in this present time, we must take it seriously and deal with it, so our future can be more promising, instead of having death tolls because of suicide, overdose, abuse of alcohol and drugs just because of mental suffering. We must help each other to emancipate from mental slavery that we are probably the cause of it.

 We must fully continue the struggle on all fronts …………..starting with ensuring that prevention is possible.

Written by Lyfe Chami





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