Break the stigma

I read somewhere that "it's easy to say about your toothache" but it's difficult to say "my heart is broken". We can easily discuss our physical health but we still have a stigma to discuss our mental health. We have moved from painting pictures of an individual with leaves to clicking pictures with smartphones and that also selfies. We have moved from loving someone with feelings to making love by watching porn movies. We have moved from sacrificing life for a loved one to committing a crime to take possession of someone. We have moved from searching medicine plants to having injections to relieve pain or transplanting each and every organ including the heart. We have technological revolutions all around the world but still, we live with so many myths and misconceptions and have the stigma of certain disabilities and also in rituals and learning about our religions. Every possible human being in this world is left with what is shown or observed in the society around them but nobody tries to analyze what is good and bad and if needed to talk about making a change then one must do that. The time has come to break the stigma that only negative things can happen, we need to work towards creating a positive impact on society.

Due to the certain stigma of life, so many intelligent people get frustrated with taboos and have committed unnecessary steps like giving up their lives or leaving the hope of improving. Today's young generation has become educated or has learned to make changes with the scientific revolution. They do take care of their physical health, do exercise or maintain a diet, or many more actions to keep themselves presentable but somewhere they have forgotten that the mental health and confidence of an individual are equally important as education, earning money, and status maintenance. Our ancestors have narrated so many stories that only education is not enough it's how well you implement your knowledge to make yourself a better human being and also help others who are in need. We need to break so many stigmas to make ourselves better.

We still carry a stigma that females are born to take care of the house and kids. Wherein our ancestors like Yashoda and Devki, the mother of Lord Krishna was always given equal importance to Nand Ji and Vasudev, in the growth of the child. Ahilya Bai Holkar, Jhansi Ki Rani fought like any male fighters to fight for their own people. We need to break the stigma that a handicapped person cannot do anything or does not have status in society but Lord Krishna accepted Surdas, a blind singer's prayers for him. King Akbar also recognized the value of Tansen. We have the stigma that education is very important and that only educated people can play important roles in society. But Lord Krishna has also narrated in Mahabharata that Yudhishthira, a well-educated person can commit a crime and lose their values or Karna who was too intelligent can also be part of doing wrong deeds. Stigma is the outer presentation of an individual as to be more attractive and people do follow that. Still, they don't understand that the beautiful outer world can be broken from the inside and those who show off can also be mentally not stable to help others.

I get to meet so many parents though educated but not ready to accept that they have a handicapped child. They are still not ready to fight the stigma that disability can become an ability with individuals and through joint efforts. I know one mother whose child had only 50% hearing loss and with good technology hearing aids, he was able to hear and speak like near-normal. Still, his mother use to never make him wear hearing aids in social gatherings, and where people can notice him wearing hearing aids and had a stigma to look in a different way at handicapped children and they used to blame their karmas. Even old age people who lose their hearing due to aging don't want to wear hearing aids due to stigma. Earlier blindness and wearing spectacles was a stigma but over time people have accepted but it's not still the same with deafness and hearing aids as it is not been fully accepted. We have accepted technology in all the electronic gazettes like tv, phone, etc but are not ready to accept the deaf as still there are so many myths and misconceptions and social stigma.

There is a stigma in so many areas. Recently. I attended an event where there were discussions on andropause for males and menopause for females. The whole concept was designed in a humorous way by drama, bhavai, and poetic form. The person in charge made it sound like such a serious topic in such a simple and humorous way. We don't talk with each other about these issues with our partners due to stigma. How we get a heart attack or have coronavirus disease but we never discuss andropause and menopause so openly. Sexual relation is loving someone wholeheartedly and when such body changes come in our body we don't share our difficulties with our partner wholeheartedly. Communication with spouses and understanding each other is breaking the stigma and it can make so many tasks easier. Pregnancy, delivery of the child, and growing the child both partners play an important role. In the same way passing through andropause and menopause, love and affection, and understanding of each other are also equally important.

I was also part of that function and after seeing the whole presentation I also felt that understanding menopause and andropause becomes very easy if the feelings of a partner and warmth of a loved one are there in life. We all are the sailors of our life, we know how to sail to go to another side of the shore, and if we are confident then sailing becomes much easier. If in between we face waves of andropause and menopause and we rely on technology, google and discuss with each other then on the way instead of moving ahead, the path becomes confusing and it get's difficult to sail. If we take the support of others like our spouse or doctors' concern and believe and have faith and continue with our journey then also we can sail easily so we have to decide how to sail? and I always believe we have to look at people with disability who face challenges every day and just decide to grow if we do so then there will be no stigma and we will live our life more meaningful.

There are so many stigmas like sons are more precious, daughters are brought up and they need to get married then go to another house because as a parent it's our responsibility. We need to follow certain religions with certain rituals only. Everyone is doing prayers so it should be done that way or you need to educate boys more than girls or boys can only fight and fly but girls can't like that many more issues. In all this revolution or rat race we all are getting more confused and adding mental stress to ourselves. We are forgetting our self-responsibility as human beings born in this world that whatever happens, we as an individual instead of complaining should make suggestions. Instead of judging others we need to judge our own attitudes towards everything. Instead of criticizing we need to learn to be quiet. Instead of looking for culprits or faults we need to find solutions. Instead of playing the victim we should strive to become winners. Instead of justifying our mistakes we need to learn from them.

Breaking the stigma not only means removing taboos over time. It's breaking the stigma and looking at your mental health first beyond physical health. It is communicating and understanding what is right and wrong and what is good and bad. Breaking stigma is thinking beyond positivity and breaking the barriers of negative energy around us. A positive attitude towards life helps to break a word called "stigma''.