Mental Health Series- Busted: 7 Mental Health Myths with Dr. Rashi Agarwal

There are several mental health myths floating around till date that perpetuate the stigma and prevent people from getting the required help. Dispelling misconceptions about mental health will help reduce stigma and discrimination against mental diseases and conditions, which will help create a safe environment for people to seek assistance when they need it.

Dr. Anjali Singh from MedBound Times had an educational session with Psychiatrist Dr. Rashi Agarwal regarding mental health myths where Dr. Rashi dispels some common mental health myths that are prevalent till date in the society.

Dr. Rashi Agarwal, MBBS, MD (Psychiatry), is a psychiatrist, mental health expert, and educator, who dispels misconceptions and myths about mental health online and in person and is currently practicing in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India.

1) Myth: Mental health disorders are a sign of weakness.

Dr. Rashi Agarwal: Because mental health illnesses impair productivity, people used to stigmatize mental health as a sign of weakness. This mentality has persisted through the ages and is still widely held today.

2) Myth: Mental health illnesses and disorders are not real illnesses, it's all in people's head.

Dr. Rashi Agarwal: It's true if people say it's in my head since it's in my neurological system. It's comparable to stating, "You have a weak heart" to someone who has experienced a heart attack or "You have a weak stomach" to someone who has digestive issues. A chemical imbalance in the nerve system causes mental health disorders, just like how chemical imbalances in other bodily systems cause various diseases. The fact that we lack a test that can visually diagnose mental health conditions, such as a blood marker test where a single needle prick can gauge how severe an individual's anxiety or depression is, does not disprove their existence.

3) Myth: People suffering from schizophrenia have multiple personalities.

Dr. Rashi Agarwal: Due to numerous inaccurate depictions of schizophrenia in broadcast media over the years, TV shows and movies have a play a huge role in spreading this fallacy. People with schizophrenia experience delusions and hallucinations which involves hearing and seeing things that don't exist in reality. Additionally, when they are not responding to these hallucinations or delusions, they are either sitting motionless where they appear disconnected from reality or have a decreased participation in daily activities. Therefore, these symptoms are often mistaken for multiple personality disorders. Although this illness is mentioned in textbooks, it is actually exceedingly uncommon.

4) Myth: All the Neat freaks have OCDs! It's so common that casually referring to someone with OCD who is meticulous about cleanliness as having the disorder has practically gained cultural currency in recent years.

Dr. Rashi Agarwal: It is a very common myth, but people need to understand that being meticulous about cleanliness is not the same as having OCD. Again, I would say that social media plays a significant role in propagation of this particular myth because with this term being thrown around so casually, we are downplaying the struggles of a person suffering through OCD. Although we must de-stigmatize mental health by including it in our conversations, this does not entail that we should minimize or trivialize its significance. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a severe condition that causes great distress in those who experience it.

OCD is an extremely difficult disorder to live with since it is so resistant to therapy. OCD is much more than just a need for order and cleanliness; it goes well beyond the drive to tidy up and arrange and it can manifest as obsessive-compulsive behaviors that a person has no control over. If I may provide some examples, some people's obsessive-compulsive activities include washing their clothes until they are ripped, cleaning till water is poured into electrical sockets, and washing their hands until the skin begins to peel off. Imagine the level of anxiety and obsessive thoughts the individual is experiencing to the point that they appear to occasionally be on the verge of self-harm but are still unable to regulate their behavior.

Additionally, seeing these posts on social media where users attempt to minimize OCD by reducing it to just cleanliness and organization has a very negative effect on those who are experiencing it because they believe that this is what normal OCD looks like when in reality, what they are going through is abnormal or extremely severe. In fact, I've had patients approach me and request me to treat their OCD so that it only manifests as minor cleaning and arranging, like the girl in the Instagram reel. I can't emphasize enough the importance of awareness in all of this since it all comes back to a lack of it.

5) Myth: Bipolar Disorder is just mood swings.

Dr. Rashi Agarwal: Our daily lives include mood swings, which are highly typical and characteristically human. But bipolar disorder is much more complicated than having simple mood swings because where mood swings can be seen as ups and downs of our mood and emotions, bipolar disorder is characterized by experiencing them as intense peaks and valleys. It is a very serious disorder, and if left untreated, the maniacal highs and the depressive lows have led some people to take drastic measures like self-harm, suicide, or exhibiting aggressive behavior.

6) Myth: Depression is just being sad and not a real illness.

Dr. Rashi Agarwal: Sadness is a natural human emotion that we all experience on a daily basis, but depression is a clinical condition where people suffering through it experience persistent low mood, feeling of constant sadness and changes in sleeping pattern, feeling of hopelessness and worthlessness, feelings of unwarranted guilt, affected libido, sometimes inability to function to the point that even basic activities like brushing, bathing and cleaning seem like a major task.

7) Myth: Only people with mental health condition need to take care their mental health.

Dr. Rashi Agarwal: We advise people to lead a healthy lifestyle that includes eating healthy, getting good sleep and incorporating exercise in their daily routine, even if they don't have a heart problem because prevention is better than cure and similar is the case with mental health. We should regularly maintain and keep a check on it rather than waiting for it to get worse to the point where it needs an emergency attention. Cross-sectionally nobody can be fully physically or mentally healthy across the board because it is a lifelong journey.