Of late, the never-ending pursuit of success has been taking a lot of lives, the latest being that of famous actor Sushant Singh Rajput. The general trend of increasing suicide rates and the recent case of a student committing suicide in Kerala due to inability to attend online classes further corroborates the same.

The zeal to succeed is at an all-time high now since people who fail in the materialistic aspects are regarded failures by the society. The pressure of being a winner in everything that one does, be it academics, sports, arts or anything for that matter, takes a toll on the mental health of people. This coupled with love failures and loneliness make people vulnerable to mental issues. People often forget that their mere existence is much more important than becoming winners.

The society along with the close circle of family and friends are the major contributories to the deteriorating mental health. The ever increasing comparisons among individuals, the pressure to achieve the perceived standards of ‘success’ and crucification of individuals who follow their own path have had severe impact of the mental health of individuals. Although individuals enjoy greater freedom to choose one’s own path than earlier times, the pressure to achieve pre-conceived standards and comparison have only increased with time. Lack of an effective mechanism to address mental health issues adds fuel to the above problems.

The social media platforms also act as an accelerator for mental depression. The hate comments received online may leave a deep impact on delicate minds. Adding to this, individuals become sad almost always on seeing the ‘happy’ experiences shared by their friends and acquaintances online, especially by those in the same age group, since their perception of being ‘happy’ gets altered and the thought of not being able to achieve what the peers have achieved may lead to depression.

Loneliness is another major aspect which intensifies mental deterioration. The current trend of being ‘independent’ in everything and keeping all others, including the family and intimate friends, at a distance has a dangerous aftermath. Lack of a person to support when passing through tough times lead people to overthink and be engrossed in negativity. Being close to family keeps one reminded about their loved ones and the pain inflicted on them if one hurts himself. This may often discourage people from taking extreme steps.

Being happy is the greatest gift one can give to oneself. No matter how rich, how “successful”, how powerful one is, at the end, what matters is whether one is happy or not. I do not completely subscribe to the popular belief that money cannot buy happiness. I do feel that happiness can be bought to a great extent using money and that it becomes difficult to be happy when you don’t even have money for your existence. But that being said, one thing which I firmly believe is that money can never solve unhappiness.

Here, I am reminded of the life and death of Kevin Carter, a South African photo journalist. He was well known for capturing great photos even in most horrifying conditions. In 1993, he was offered an assignment to report the famine in Sudan as a part of a UN Mission. In Sudan, he captured the photo of a young boy (mistaken to be a girl in the initial reports) falling on the ground out of hunger and a vulture lurking nearby waiting for the child to die to eat it’s flesh. After capturing the photo, he chased away the vulture and left for another UN camp nearby.

The photo was titled ‘The vulture and the little girl’. It was published in the New York Times and caused a sensation. It also raised huge uproar and debates as to the duty of the photographer to save the child instead of capturing photos and fleeing from the place, though it was later reported that luckily, the child had been rescued by the UN personnel. Subsequently, Kevin Carter won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for that photo.

Even before the Sudanese assignment, he was said to have been on the brink of depression as a result of the pile of stress and guilt he had accumulated while capturing the gruesome murders and apartheid brutalities in his earlier assignments. The sight of the child dying of hunger and a vulture waiting to scavenge the flesh pushed him into deep depression. As a result, he committed suicide at the age of 33, roughly four months after he had won the Pulitzer Prize. The life story of Kevin Carter only reaffirms that beyond money and fame, it is mental well-being that matters.

Indeed, the mental state of a person is very fragile and is a grey area unless the person reveals it to others. A person may appear to be entirely normal even though he/she may be going through a mental turmoil. Any person who goes through depression should rightly share it with your most loved ones and seek professional help. Being lonely would only aggravate the situation and may even cause loss of lives.

That being said, a lot of aspects of mental health can be gauged from the behaviour and behavioural changes of a person. Close interaction would reveal lots of express and implied signals of mental health of the other individual. It is the duty of the loved ones to observe any visible signs of depression in the behavioural pattern and seek professional help wherever needed.

The society, especially the Indian society, has always had a taboo towards mental health. An increase in number of depressed individuals emphasize the need to accept the fact that mental health is the most important aspect of our existence and any problems relating to it are to be accepted and addressed with all seriousness. The existing practice of labelling a person as insane when diagnosed with any mental illness and distancing such person from society has only worsened the issue over the period. Hence, a departure from this view is the need of the hour. It is also pertinent to note that instead of categorizing all individuals under a single umbrella and compelling them to follow a true and trodden path, a more pragmatic approach of treating each individual as unique would go a long way in mending the current state.

A change in the social media behaviour is also needed. People should be dissuaded from attacking others in the cyber space considering the mental hurt that such incidents inflict. Now that the cyber laws have become stringent, one also needs to factor that the abuses hurled online may also lead to severe consequences. Further, making the internet a platform for sharing bad experiences along with the success stories would make people realize that life is not a ‘rosy picture’ as projected presently.

It is also observed that many times, children or teens are the victims of depression. In most cases, it is the peers who are a reason for the outbreak of depression in children. In such cases, the child or teenager may not be able to comprehend the deteriorating mental health. Here, the parents and teachers play a vital role in ensuring that the matter is dealt with effectively and with due care. Further, the parents and teachers should also advise children not to cause mental hurt to any other person by way of teasing or discrimination or by any other manner since in most of such cases, the incident leaves a permanent scar on the mental health of the victim although it may not have be done with the intention of causing hurt.

The rising number of such incidents also casts a responsibility on governments to formulate policies for ensuring good mental health for its citizens. Encouraging discussions on this matter in the public forums, widening the network of rehabilitation centers, enacting statutes compelling all institutions, i.e. schools, colleges and workplaces, to have a consulting counselling professional could be some of the steps in this direction.

I would end this quoting the famous dialogue from the movie Chhichore, which was one of the last movies acted by Sushant Singh Rajput, which sums up the crux of my entire article –

हम हार जीत, सक्सेस फेलियर में इतना उलझ गए है.
की ज़िन्दगी जीना भूल गए है.
ज़िन्दगी में अगर कुछ सबसे ज़्यादा इम्पोर्टेन्ट है .
तो वो है खुद ज़िन्दगी

We’re so lost thinking about winning, losing, success, failure
That, we have forgotten about living life
The most important thing in life is …
Life itself