Introduction

Glocal International Teen Conference (GITC) is an opportunity for teenagers to address the issues and overcome the challenges that they have faced in their daily lives. It is a platform for all teenagers from age 13 to 19 to learn, empower, and bring social impact through a participatory and interactive environment with their peers from all over the globe. It is a lifetime experience to connect with the influencing teenager and act for a positive change. 

The conference showcased the ideas, experiences, and stories of teenagers from different countries through a series of panel discussions and presentations. The three key issues of GITC are Entrepreneurship, Empowerment, and Socio-Perspective. This Year, Glocal International Teen Conference is being organized virtually. 

Presenter for “Empowerment Panel” at Wai Wai Glocal International Teen Conference, 2020

Ms. Nishma Bhandari, is an 18-year-old Social Activist from Nepal. Currently, she is involved in Nepal Teen leaders and working for a creating change in society. At a young age, She has already enrolled in different leadership activities and speech competitions. She has already won awards in both Nepali and English speech, debate, poem recitations. Nishma is also a recipient of AKHIL NEPAL RASHTRIYA SWANTANTRA BIDYARTHI UNION-2017. She has also been awarded best position paper in Global MUN-2019 and Speaker in the SQC.

Nishma presented her presentation on the “Empowerment Panel” on “Mental Health” at Wai Wai Glocal International Teen Conference 2020. She highlighted the mental health crisis, the importance of prevention and conception. She also addressed a pleasant note on covering the mental health issues in the curriculum from the very beginning.

Here is the gist of the presentation;

Firstly, I would like to thank all the organization team for giving us an opportunity to express ourselves, our experiences, and also giving us this platform to make our voices heard. Now, I would like to start my presentation on the topic “Mental Health.”

Our life is exactly like a roller coaster. Sometimes we are very much optimistic and sometimes we are pessimistic. Sometimes we fear failure, and sometimes we are over-excited about our success. Sometimes we expect things to go smoothly but that doesn’t happen. So, I think this is a roller coaster ride. So for us, it is very important to be active, not just physically but mentally. To deal with all of these things, we have to be healthy in and out. In today’s world, we see every one of us are busy, busy with different things and we just tend to be happier outside but inside we are always feeling low in some part of our life. So now the most important thing, I think we should all know is a mental disorder. A mental disorder is a condition that affects our thinking, feeling, mood and behaviour. It can affect our ability to relate to others and function stay. And most probably, it can also last longer, or it can be of a short term.

According to WHO, one in every four people they are suffering from mental health, and out of them only 40% of them seek help. And the saddest part of this is, even in those of the 40%, some of them get the right guidance and some of them did not get the right guidance. Some common mental disorders that we see in our day-to-day lives are anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and like there are many others but these are some of the most common mental disorders that we get to see in our day-to-day lives. So we all might be thinking about how we identify ourselves, either we are suffering from mental health or not.

According to the research, we have also found core domains, and they are; time spent, activity addiction, and investment. And all of these things are related to depression, anxiety that we have been facing in day-to-day life. The other information that was found out that females users are more rather than male users. Females are supposed to be and they’re more affected by mental health problems, and social media platforms have become a detrimental effect on the psychological health of the people.

Causes and Effects of Mental Health

As well know there are many causes and effects, maybe we have been reading this, but we are just aware when some people suicide. Now suicide is the effect. When some people suicide, then we considered it. Then, we go and console the family members, before we don’t even care. And I think this is the thing which every one of us should change.

Now the most important thing is how to recover, how to cover from that. The most important factor is we might suffer from any kind of experience or trauma, so we should try to remove this all. We should open our feelings to someone. So by this thing what I want to say is whenever you are sharing your opinion to someone, they should have the knowledge about mental health. 

Similarly, meditation, yoga are some of the best examples. We just need to spend a few minutes or two hours on meditation and make our health healthy and happier every day.

As we are living in South Asian countries, we are so much aware and this mental health has been a taboo for every one of us. So the reasons behind the taboo for mental health are just mental society. Based on religion, height, colour, weight, or anything, people are ready to judge you, they judge you from your outer appearances and they judge you from every kind of possible way they want. So, mental health has been taboo here because if you are suffering from any kind of mental disorder, then you are not able to open to other people. You have the feeling of shame; you have the feeling that people might call you mad, and this is most commonly found in our society. 

Now, moving forward to some of the misconceptions related to mental health. They are mental health people or people suffering from mental health are dangerous. Mental health is only affecting the people who were already sick. So these are some common misconceptions that we see in different people.

The most important factor to realize is whenever you see any kind of mental health patient. How do you deal with it? So, before going and talking to the mental health patient, we should be aware and learn how to deal with them. And the very first thing is, you should set a time without any kind of distraction. Also, there should be a perfect time for you and the other patient. There should be no distractions so that you can communicate easily. The second step- when that person is starting to share their feelings with you, you should not interfere with them so that they can be more and more vocal about that. After hearing their problems and analyzing the situation. You can be positive and talk about well being. If you see the situation is getting worse. You should go and console the physiatrist. And the most important factor is you should know your limits. 

At the end of the session, the most important thing we have to realize is; whenever we are addressing any kind of mental disorder patients. We should not treat them as victims. Instead, we should treat them as survivors. And of course, we should give them the opportunities to live a normal life. They should be more and more open about mental health. Of course, it is difficult to be open about mental health, especially when we are not given knowledge about mental health. Thus, I am thinking to solve or eradicate mental health problems, also it should be treated from school time. And the students should be provided with the knowledge from the very tender age from the primary school level. I think this will be helping them to groom in the upcoming days.