Cases of mental disorders among women in Pakistan is 2 to 3 times more as compared with the males mainly on account of early marriages, tussle in family relations, discriminatory laws and indifferent attitudes towards them.
This was stated by renowned psychiatrists and psychologists while talking to Business Recorder with reference to women psychiatric problems here on Friday.
They attributed early marriages and discriminatory laws towards women as major causes of giving rise to tendency of suicides and homicides among womenfolk in the country, which according to them stand at 45 percent and 57 percent ratio, respectively.
The psychiatrists including Professor Dr Khalid Mufti, President Mental Health Resource Centre and Principal Khyber Medical College Peshawar; Dr Abad Ahmad, Registrar Psychiatry Department, Fatima Jinnah Medical College and psychologists Miss Kanwal and Miss Ambar maintained that preferential treatment towards males, disproportionate responsibilities and educational opportunities, matrimonial dilemmas, poor social freedom and mobility, no say in pregnancy and birth control, home and work conflict pressures and harassment, abuse and identity esteem issues are some of the major causes of mental disorder, depression, anxiety and rising incidents of suicides among women.
According to Professor Khalid Mufti, attitude of society towards divorced women is very humiliating and disgraceful, as it is presumed as a matter of shame and viewed with suspicion besides disapproved very strongly if decides to remarry. Feature of stigma related with mental health issue results in reducing patients access to resources and housing and job opportunities besides leading to low self-esteem isolation and hopelessness.
Dr Abad Ahmad said that childhood indicators of the problem are manifested in the form of physical problems, intellectual disabilities, low birth weight, multigenerational poverty and disruptive behaviours.
Miss Kanwal stated that mental health is directly proportional to physical health as sound mind and body is considered as prerequisite for performance of normal activities.
"For a good mental health, it is necessary to avoid speaking lie and there stands a need to educate children from initial classes to always speak truth," she asserted.
Comments
Comments are closed.