When I tell people that I am studying to be a psychiatrist, they always say "Oh!" with a raised eyebrow and a sort of high tone towards the end of that exclamation, whereas if I were to say that I am a surgical resident,their response would be more "Oh!" with a punch and enthusiasm at the end of that remark.

Another thing I tend to notice in the response of my esteemed colleagues in a general hospital set up is that "Could you counsel this patient? He's just been admitted for consumption of Organophosphorous Compound poisoning." While I realize and appreciate the role I will play in helping counsel people, I must emphatically point out that Psychiatry is not about only counseling, or listening to people's problems. It's about sifting and sorting out details that others would readily write off as too trivial, and using those details to come to a conclusion about the person's diagnosis, and hence come up with a rational treatment option for them.

Many people tend to scoff at such a task, and I myself have found it a tad tedious and "What's the use of finding all this out?", but it is only after seeing the way the faculty here at NIMHANS use those very same details to reach a tentative diagnosis that I find out the value of it.

Psychiatry has been given a fairly bad press by everybody. People tend to think of it as too trivial a specialty for it to be taken seriously. But I believe that this specialty helps me improve the quality of people's lives more than any other medical branch.

I am saying this not to boast my choice or sound holier-than-thou, but I would like this to be a way of telling people that there is nothing wrong in psychiatry or in seeing a psychiatrist, because there is nothing wrong with mental illness. It's not about going "mental" and being admitted in a "mental hospital". It's about an illness, just like Diabetes or Asthma, that has only recently gained recognition in Medicine.

Most of the problem arose from the lack of a proper pharmacological arsenal to counter Schizophrenia and Psychosis. Traditionally, people with psychosis were treated with cold water baths,or were put in an insulin induced coma!

Compare that with anti psychotics that are now available, and for the most part, efficient. They are, however, not fool proof ,and there have been times when they have failed. Now, instead of saying that "That's mental illness for you!" I would like to put it like this : That there is much about the biological basis of mental illness that is yet to be discovered, and this only opens more avenues for research and growth.

It should be worth pointing out that many times treatment is life-long, for the psychoses and the Schizophrenics. But which medical disease, save from infectious disease(excluding AIDS and Hepatitis B and C) promises a brief treatment followed by absolute cure? Nil.

By administering psychiatric treatment, we can give families a chance to be normal again ,we can give a man or woman the chance to go back to work and make a living for him or herself. What's wrong about that?

Depression is a chronic disorder that does not, as is commonly thought, always arise from traumatic life events or a troubled childhood. It is caused due to a deficiency of Serotonin in the body. Serotonin is a key neurochemical in the brain that helps modulate mood. A lack of it causes people to be depressed. So, it need not only be that a guy with some family issues and stress at work ends up "Depressed". It can also mean that a person who is working normally, with a loving family and a strong friends circle ends up depressed.

Features of this disorder include fatigue, waking up in the morning 2 hours before the normal wake up time (for eg: waking up at 3 or 4 am instead of 6 am), feelings of sadness that are continuous, persistent, and which does not abate with activities that are usually pleasurable, such as watching a good movie, or going out for a walk. Feelings of worthlessness, feeling hopeless, that one is better off dead than alive,and suicidal thoughts and plans.

The major risk of Depression is suicide, and if you see the families of people who have taken their lives, you will know how traumatic an event that is for them. Very often, they feel that it was their fault ,that they could have done something to help. The fact of it is that the depressive will be so wound up in his world that there is precious little that one can do in terms of an intervention. But it is always helpful to keep track of your loved ones for any of the symptoms listed above.

Again, this is not to sound haughty and this is not meant to be a scientific lecture. This is meant to spread the word around that mental illness is prevalent, and that it is treatable, and that it is still stigmatized to this day. It is my hope that this stigma reduces in the days to come.