Accumulating material wealth hysterically and leaving behind all the life’s natural fruits can make man go imprudent which will invariably lead to mental ill-health, says Dr Mahamood al Abry, renowned psychiatrist and Executive Director of Ibn Sina Hospital, Muscat.
“The petite disappointments can lead to major mental and health problems if taken too personally and one should learn how to balance success and failures alike for a salubrious mental and physical state”, the doctor told the Observer on the sidelines of the World Mental Health Day celebrated yesterday.
“On a national level, we ought to do so many things in order to improve mental health. First among them is the dissemination of services of primary health services to all levels including the youths, women and families as a whole. Given that the youths are getting better education and securing better positions in life, we can say that the country is marching towards excellence in better mental health care that can stand at par with the international standards”, doctor said.
He says that we need to reflect on improving the mental health of the people around us and that should be one of a daily programme rather than once in a year. He advocates a holistic model of mental health generally includes concepts based upon educational, psychological, religious and sociological perspectives, as well as theoretical perspectives from personality, social, clinical, health and developmental psychology and includes includes five life tasks.
“They are essence or spirituality, work and leisure, friendship, love and self-direction along with twelve sub tasks such as self worthiness, self control, realistic beliefs, emotional awareness and coping, problem solving and creativity, sense of humour, nutrition, exercise, self care, stress management, gender identity, and cultural identity which are identified as characteristics of healthy functioning and a major component of wellness”.
He said happiness and mental health does not come in pills and it does not come by just waiting for it to happen. We all have to work at being happy and we have a duty towards others around us to help them be happy and mentally well.
Oman Observer