Encounters With Depression

mental health,on the negative side is often associated with unmanageable dirt, filth and squalor.state-of-the-art hospitals catering for geeneral health too are degraded to a humiliating low, the day the ‘’sweeper’, does ‘nt turn up.the sweepers belong to the most neglected class of workers, overworked and underpaid’’, by the metropolitan administration.there are some welfare bodies like edhi’ s which is most dependable in pakistan, who aare particular about matters of community health and hygiene.they maintain several ‘’homes’’ among which there is one for destitute women.most of them are aged, and abandoned and suffering from depression.as far as i remember through news dailies’ reports, and interview of bilkis edhi herself, that they make sure that the ‘’homes’’, re thoroughly clean,spic and span and neat daily without fail, especially the toilets.Repeat toilets.And there is no shortage of menial staff for this particular work.What iwant to point out now, is that if Mental health accomodation is procured all over the city, in convenient community focalized areas, so that a ''house'' would cater to the needs of a local community , it would be a welcome convenience.Keep it simple otta be the motto.The community could be sole in charge of maintaining without shortage the daily cleaning chores of the ''house,''like Edhi.There could be spacious floors, and rooms, all with ''modular''facilities to adjust the size of available space.The furbishing could be bare essentials. The patient's families if they so desire could bring their own furniture and AC's too.What the higher administration could do would be to ensure adequate number of well trained "psychotherapist support staff"and available "psychotherapy" specialists and consultants, to provide care for the admitted patients.For humanities sake we want a peaceful and respectful atmosphere to treat our mentally ill, right close to our neighborhoods, which make up our one and only city.The cityhas its limits.We are asking something wthin limits!

okhla writes <<< Does it actually take a physical kick on your behind to make you go away?? >>>

No, it will take something more, a jdam probably. I am not going away AH. I will be there to challenge the BS of your kind, supporter of dictators and US hegemony, slaves of the white man. Be afraid, be very afraid because I am not going away, regardless of your lies about rejection and deportation-NONE of which is true...

read the article on Social Movement Structure that Mohammad Gill and other Chowk Editors censored and didn`t publish, because they want to hide things that might benefit humanity, all they are interested in is publishing their pseudo-plagirized, thoughtless, tape-recorder-esque (their brains, the finished products of colonial education designed for the ``inferiors`` and the colonized mindset, can only reproduce stuff that is rote-memorized, in other words their brains function as mere tape recorders that spit out in more or less similar words what they have read in other places, there is no connection of concepts, no original thought and no critical analysis even as there is consistent worship of all things Western by them) articles.

Chowk readers take back the site that belongs to you and not these ignorant AHs.

P.S. Dr. Sohail is one of these AHs as well

Re: # 45

Shut up Masadi. Take your weird articles to lulu.com, where they truly belong.
Can you not understand REJECTION?? Does it actually take a physical kick on your behind to make you go away??

I have already pointed out that you have been comprehensively rejected by the US school which got you deported, the Pakistani college which saw your true colors and finally by Chowk editors. Ordnary Chowkies like me had recognized your true Zero-potential long back.

Abb hutt jaa !!!
Hawaa aane de bhai !!!

#35 by hamidm2

Good One!! :)))

Desi immigrant’s challenges in adjusting to new life in western world are no different than other professionals back home who need to face relentless competition and balance family and work time. In fact, in many respects, making it in corporate and business life here has many rewards that make up for the normal “depression” caused by work.

Spouses face entirely different challenges. In most cases, if not all, they were not hungry enough to come here. They just followed their spouses and hence after initial excitement miss their social and family network and that perhaps is the primary cause of their sufferings. Some of them develop new interests while others keep shrinks busy or make every ones’ life miserable.

Children are much more flexible and adjust to multi-cultural environments. If parents are normal and do not make big issues about their ``uniqueness``, ``superior culture`` or ``injustices to their people``, kids turn out fine and take what’s good from all the cultures they are exposed to.

bjkumar #24

{{… Newton … Beethoven …}}

The case of Isaac Newton is quite interesting. He was born posthumously and his mother remarried early in his childhood leaving him in his grandmother’s care. He was on bad terms with his mother and stepfather and bore through his adult life the scars of being an abandoned and unloved child, inordinately fearful of criticism, and seemingly with no truly close relationships. Apart from this he seemed a more than competent adult until his first nervous breakdown, in his late thirties. He recovered but suffered a second breakdown in his early fifties, after which he apparently made no further contributions to science. He remained however more than competent by normal human standards, whether in rooting out and hanging counterfeiters or in political manipulation (as in his masterminding the Royal Society’s campaign against Leibnitz in the priority dispute over the invention of infinitesimal calculus). Quite a character, in short.

It is highly likely that Newton’s breakdowns were caused by heavy metal poisoning. Apparently physics and mathematics occupied only a small part of his labours. He was also an eager alchemist. Further, a large fraction of his manuscripts was devoted to his heretical researches into the Bible and especially the Book of Revelation. It was probably the alchemy that did for him – mercury (the flux of choice) and perhaps also lead.

As for other creative people of the past, some of them may have suffered from chronic infections for which no effective treatment existed then and which induced the symptoms of mental illness. The most obvious candidate is syphilis, which likely accounted for Beethoven’s deafness (and the insanity and/or premature death of at least two more famous European composers). One can speculate that without the terrors of approaching deafness Beethoven would have remained a more conventional composer for his times rather than the revolutionary he became. He may have had a longer and more normal (if less prominent) life, but music would probably have been poorer for it.

Dear Dr.

Nice Comprehendible article, for me being depressed means I can spend all day in bed, and still not get a good night’s rest. Depression had been closed to me like a shadow; but suicide hasn’t been.
Wallahi it can seem worse then deadly cancer because most cancer patients feel loved and they have hope and self-esteem, I have had this problem since I was in other planet, they don’t call it manic depression anymore;They call it bipolar disorder, and I am a Type 2 :-)
Na Pucho Hamse Koi Baat Ke Zindgi Ek Sawal Ban Ke Rah Gai Tee,
Dard Itna Ta Sine Me Ki Khushi Ek Khayal Ban Ke Rah Gayi Tee.
If our war is spiritual, then our despression is our lives, Think positive !
Think global!
Ahad

Re: # 33
dear ahad...i am glad you shared your dilemma openly and candidly. Depression is a

painful condition and we need to try our best personally and collectively to decrease human

suffering and increase health and happiness. Science and psychology have been trying and

will keep on trying. thanks for your comments...sohail

#30 Hamidm2

Sir, I am unsure about those two gentlemen whose names you propose for that list - but I do feel that most chowk people themselves qualify to be on the list (without the ``great men`` qualifier, of course) - for actually hanging around this site and having convinced themselves that they are actually accomplishing something worthwhile. :)

The exceptions of course are you and I! :) :)

And if you disagree with me, then I can always drop you off the list. :)

Now seriously,

I earlier stated that this is an extremely well-written article - which made Mr. Delhiwallah burn in anger of jealousy. (We won`t mention Mumbaiya people!)

But I really meant it. Its importance can not be overstated.

Depression is a widespread malady - especially among the Amrikkan (and perhaps other overseas) desi communities. Partly so because we desis are saddled with a lot of crap since early childhood and are unable to shed it - we sometimes even take pride in that baggage. We would rather go through the whole life carrying that crap than lift even one finger to address it - or even acknowledge it.

Problem is even worse for desi ladies - because of obvious reasons.

Problem is even worse for the children of immigrants - they carry all their parents` loads plus the load of growing up in a racially ``different`` society and all its associated ``blessings``.

I am aware of two suicide cases among people that I have known. One was in India and one right here in my neighborhood.

Depression is an ``equal opportunity`` killer!

Re: # 32

bj,

........ you are right, but depression is equally, if not more widespread among desis in desilands - at least in pakistan ......... the reason that we don`t hear about it as much is because a) people don`t recognize it as a disease, b) if they recognize it, they try to hide it because of social stigma, c) there are very few facilities to treat it and d) there are no statistics available .......... pakistani women, in particular, have an extremely high rate of depression due to many factors - abusive husbands or the lack of husbands, nagging in-laws, financial problems, obesity and facial hair ......... a lot of men too suffer from chronic depression because of unemployment and sexual guilt brought on by oppressive religious indoctrination ......... nobody knows what the suicide rate is, because there are no official statistics available and - get this - both suicide and attempted suicide are a crime; unless, of course, you are a suicide bomber - in which case it is considered to be an honor to be rewarded with all-you-can-do sex in heaven ! ............

........ however, the denizens of chowk are not depressed, they suffer from a much more serious condition - psychosis : ``a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration of normal social functioning``

BJ,

I think I took enough time to respond;-)

OK, Moses may not be a stammerer. I always `mistook` stammering with lack of self-esteem OR fear complex, otherwise there`s no physiological deformity!

assADI,

Ego never comes in my way when it comes to learning.

U seem 2 suggest that the US implanted a social structure in Japan and then, bingo suicide rates skyrocketed there? Is this another attmept of u making ass of urself, my dear embedded identity (i.e assADI)?

#25 Folio

Folio, not so fast, buddy!

First, the way I understand it, stammering (stuttering) is a speech disorder – not a mental disorder and it has nothing to do with depression.

Second, unless you are as old as Moses and knew him personally, there is no proof that he indeed stammered – something that you seem to accept as an article of faith.

No dice!

Sure, there are people who have published research papers guessing that he probably stammered – and in “proof” they cite the following quotation from Moses:

“I am not a man of words ... for I am of slow speech, and of a slow tongue”, Moses states, and later he pleads “... I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me”.

Then that researcher goes on to say: “Most authorities consider these quotations to mean that he stammered.”

Utterly ludicrous, I say! That kind of logic is highly specious and only acceptable by the likes of the Hamidm2!

After all, just because something is uncircumcised, it is the height of foolishness to assume that it does not work right!

Re: # 29

bjkumar,

......... how about adding these two to your list of `great men with mental disorders`:

gandhi ji : a fear of clothing and a penchant for young nieces

mo of mecca: talked to an invisible friend named gabby

.............. thank you for maintaing this list - i will try to add to it whenever i can ......

hamid writes <<<...... what about the bushmen of the kalahari desert and the eskimoes who suffer from depression ?.......... are they depressed because of colonialism ? >>>

A common tactic of idiots is to invent straw men in order to dismantle arguments that were never made. The bushmen of the kalahari do not suffer ``Depression`` of the kind the doctor is talking about, their depression and persistent anxiety is due to breaking the rules of their society, what Durkheim would define as mechanical solidarity, where individual and collective conscience is in congruence and hence the incidence of it is much lower, the depression of those living in modern societies is due to alienation, where an alien structure imposes itself on individuals, an organic solidarity that seperates man from the products of his hands from others and from himself, his value determined only on how he can be used. As is well documented, the ``depression and anxiety` of traditional societies as the American Indians were due to outside invaders and colonizers or due to natural catastrophies that threatened their ways of life and hence their values. Regarding post-partum depression, birth might predispose women towards such feelings but only one in ten suffer from it so there are reasons other than biology at work, but you, ignoramus neither have any data nor any clue about anything, you merely want to discredit things that have been quite thoroughly researched...

folio writes <<< Do u think that the non-existent `social structure` is responsible 4 suicides in Japan as well? >>>

Fool, Japan`s social structure is foreign implanted, read a little about what happened there, to their social tradition and their way of life, as a result of defeat in WW@ and then under US occupation post WW2. If you are unaware of the reality of ``social structure`` , at least spare showing off your lack of knowledge like a damn fool and learn something...