Arjun Mahajan
Health is wealth. Whenever we talk about health most people just think being physically fit is healthy enough. But no, being mentally healthy adds up to our wealth more than we can ever imagine.
If we are not mentally fit we are not leading a healthy life. The body and mind should be taken care of equally. And one should not feel awkward about having any mental health issues. It is as simple as having a fever. If we can discuss about our fever to a friend or a family member and reach out to a doctor for a physical problem then we should also seek help if we are facing any kind of mental health issues.
Mental health issues like anxiety, insomnia, depression etc can be healed if we try to reach out to a friend, a good listener, a close relative or a professional help. It always helps.
“Venting out your emotions is a healthy way of healing yourself. Find your vent buddies. They listen to your frustrations and problems, without any reaction or judgement,” says actress, writer and the first female director of Jammu and Kashmir, Pixie Mahajan.
She has started an Instagram page to address mental health issues and give people a platform to vent out their emotions, anonymously.
“The death of my friend, who battled mental health problems, made me start this page to help people vent out their feelings and emotions,” says Pixie, who acted in ‘Ek Tera Sath’ and ‘Never Give Up’, adding, “Mental health issues are on a rise and one of the reasons is not having a support group or an avenue where one can express freely.
Pixie uses pop culture references, memes, motivational quotes, her own creative funny videos, to address the need to vent out negative emotions on @ventoutyouremotions.
The pandemic has intensified mental health issues, loneliness, human needs, insecurities. The lack of human interaction or patient listeners is impacting happiness. This is leaving us craving for human interactions, friendships, and ‘vent buddies’, who can help us offload our worries.
WHAT IS A VENT BUDDY?
Counselling psychologist, Mili Chakraborty, founder of mitaan counselling, Bangaluru, says, “Vent buddy is someone who can lend empathetic ears and extend a warm hand to someone who is in need of venting out their emotions. Empathetic ears means listening with patience and being non judgmental about other people’s experience.” She adds and says, “warm hands means supporting them in their ups and downs, believing in their abilities and not to try to solve their problems.”
American ballet dancer Misty Copland once said, “anything is possible when you have right people there to support you.”
As age, gender, race, religion is not bar, only love, compassion is all you need to reach out to someone, she adds.
WHY VENTING OUT IS IMPORTANT?
Counseling Psychologist, Madhavi Adhvaryu Shah, Ahmedabad, says, “We are still living in a world where visiting doctors for physical problems is normal but talking about Mental health issues like Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Relationship issues, divorce etc has always been difficult in our country. This taboo of visiting a mental health professional is shameful even in today’s era. This is the reason people are not able to express their emotions and their issues are getting worse.
Venting is the first step towards healing. Because at that time we’re really accepting that we’re dealing with something difficult and it is totally okay to feel this way. We’re progressing in every aspect but we still have a long way to break this stigma of giving importance to mental health equally as I have witnessed this in last 7 years of my career as a Psychologist that how unresolved psychological issues and suppressed emotions are the reason of many physical diseases. We’re supposed to Share our emotions freely without fear of any judgements and for that we have to create such safe space for people where they can be themselves and vent about their feelings and emotions whenever they need. Especially Having a portal online on social media where most of our adolescents spend their time is a great initiative. Chatting or talking online is best for venting or even in counseling and therapy because a person can choose to reveal their real identity or they can be totally anonymous if not ready or feels shy.”
HOW TO CHOOSE A VENT BUDDY?
Finding someone that you can really talk to can be a task these days, because even though we are all connected in this age of social media, we are still a little disconnected.
This generation is considered the loneliest generation because it is easy for us to distract ourselves by infinitely scrolling on social media, rather than sitting with our emotions, processing them and talking about them with other people.
The sense of community that we had earlier is not there anymore and we humans are designed to thrive on it.
Also, everyone is going through his own struggles since the covid started, whether it is related to the family issues, loss of jobs, conflict in couples, getting and recovering from covid. It is clearly taking a toll on our mental health. Anxiety and depression are on the rise.
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