Customising treatment for the mentally unwell

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

- Nistha Gautam

The Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland acknowledged this phantasmagorical reality long before something even remotely resembling a neuro-policy was being talked about in India. Now that the Economic Survey of India 2024-25 has declared that “Mental Health of Youth Will Drive Future Economy”, maybe it will be taken seriously. Or perhaps, we’ll just shove it under the carpet after it has generated appropriate sights and sounds, rather ironically, on social media.

Whatever we choose to do as a nation as we advance needs to be informed by the fact that it has taken an epidemic, a crisis even to acknowledge that we are collectively being ruined by neglecting mental health. Sample this. Even the pre-Covid Global Burden of Disease Study (2019) confirmed that mental disorders accounted for five of the top 10 causes of disability. Mental disorders like depression, anxiety, psychosis, and drug addiction are, collectively, the second largest cause of deaths globally.

Let alone the everyday darkness that comes with psychiatric disorders, life expectancy is reduced by 15 to 20 years owing to suicide and co-morbidities. Unfortunately, these statistics haven’t meant very much, and mental health issues have been either getting fetishised by the attention economy or blindsided in the name of pride and propriety.