It is folly that one chooses a gym, gets into a punitive diet, enrols for financial literacy classes, even acquires the highest post graduate qualification but never considers mental wellness as worthy of their time and financial investment.
Two things happened a few weekends back. I attended a mental wellness seminar and an overnight party, in unrelated places. The overnight partying started on a high, sober note. Many party goers left after the midnight hour. The rest of us ninjas took up the challenge to stay on until the sun rose. Age reminded me the folly of not getting a full eight hours of sleep, so I sneaked away at some point and caught a few winks. At 10 in the morning, while still sick with sleep deprivation, I found the party still kicking, people looking like zombies. That mental wellness seminar and the learnings thereafter came to mind. I knew then that we were all in dire need of a minimum three sessions with a mental health practitioner.
Abuse of self by overindulgence, the inability to realise when we have had enough of alcohol, meals or a party is a red flag. The ‘self - torture’ as my brother called it, of falling over chairs with sleep, looking very unbecoming, left me wondering why this mental ill-health crisis is not on both the media and national leader’s lips.
