Mental illness: poverty, increasing cost of living causing surge

Poverty and increasing cost of living are making it difficult for people to seek proper treatment of depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses, which are increasing in the general population at an alarming ratio.
This was stated by renowned psychiatrist Professor I.A.K. Tareen, while talking to Business Recorder, here on Wednesday. Professor Tareen maintained that treatment facilities of psychiatric ailments remained inadequate due to high cost of treatment. The increase in mental illness in Pakistan could be attributable to poverty, unemployment, political instability, violence and other social evils, besides genetic and biological vulnerability, he said.
According to him, men diagnosed with clinical depression are more than twice as likely to develop coronary artery disease as non-depressed males. Clinical depression appears to be an independent risk factor for coronary artery disease, even several decades after the first episode of depression.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), world-wide, up to 20 percent of children and adolescents have an impairing mental illness, while suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents.
He further said that one in every four Pakistanis has to face a mental health problem at some point in their lives. As such, mental illness is feared by many people and, unfortunately, still carries a stigma (a stigma is defined as a mark or sign of disgrace). Because of this stigma, many people hesitate to get help for a mental health problem for fear of being looked down upon.
To a question, he said that mental illness is caused by a personal weakness. A mental illness is not a character flaw. It's an illness, and it has nothing to do with being weak or lacking will power, he pointed out. "Mental illness is not a single disease but a broad classification for many disorders. Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, personality disorders, eating disorders and organic brain disorders can cause misery, tears and missed opportunities", he added.
To another question, Professor Tareen said that stress is also early stage of depression, which is not usually presented with typical sadness, low mood and lack of interest in daily activity. Majority of the time, patients presents various physical symptoms like headache, backache, body ache, gastrointestinal disturbance, sleep disorder and various others somatic complaints, he said.
To a question, he said symptoms of depression include irritability, marked loss of interest in daily activities, changes in appetite, trouble sleeping at night, daily fatigue or energy loss and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.