Watch: What if physical ailments were treated like mental illness? (It isn’t really funny)
‘There’s nothing like typhoid. You just need to get out and have some fun.’
In spite of numerous social media campaigns and impassioned personal posts, depression and similar mental illnesses largely remain out of the public discourse. This is in spite of studies suggesting that close to 36% of India suffers from some form of depression and close to 65% of men and women between the ages of 22 and 25 show signs of early depression.
Of course, well-meaning friends and acquaintances are often full of banal – and uninformed – advice. To show just how absurd the suggestions can be, the comedy group All India Bakchod has made a video assuming that the person in question is suffering not from depression but from typhoid.
Now listen to the same advice in the changed context. You have typhoid? Go for a jog. It’s just a phase. Etc.
There’s also the social stigma attached to deal with. “Have you lost it? Do you want the entire neighbourhood to know our son has fever? That he has a high temperature? People will think the entire family has fever.”