Psychiatric Problems Faced by the People
of Kashmir Valley

chillibreeze writer — Jehangir Malik

Kashmir has been going through a period of political uncertainty over the last two decades. During this period, many problems have come to the forefront, which were absent in the Kashmiri society prior to the conflict. One among them is the occurrence of various mental disorders among the people.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) was a rarity in the pre-conflict period; but as the conflict began to spread its tentacles, the number of people falling prey to PTSD began increasing. Experts believe that many people are still not forthcoming while discussing problems related to mental disorders.

According to Dr. Arshad Hussain, one of the leading psychiatrists of the Kashmir Valley, the disorders which have come up during the conflict were absent in the years preceding it. He goes on to say that due to the social set up, very few people share their mental disorder, believing that others will consider them as being insane and thus ostracize them.

“Prior to 1989, PTSD was absent in society and it was only during the conflict that such cases came to be noticed. Once the armed conflict became a permanent feature, people used to get upset and they used to be tense every now and then. The condition of people living in the countryside was alarming as they would face tough situations on a regular basis,” said Dr. Arshad.

The psychiatrist says that the prevalence of such cases is less in Srinagar city, as any unwarranted action of the troops gets noticed by the media and therefore, they take subsequent actions while treading a cautious path.

“The prevalence of PTSD cases is more in districts other than Srinagar, and it has been noticed that fresh cases are coming from the rural areas. With the passage of time, the old cases may settle down and as the situation has improved over the last few years, there have been very few additions. The life time prevalence of such cases is between 17-25 percent, but the same may improve if conditions improve,” says Dr. Arshad.

“The trauma affects people in three ways; negative, neutral and positive. Under the negative set up, people get depressed and then resort to extreme steps such as suicides. These people lose hope and are not encouraged to take the forward steps in life. There are people, who, despite falling prey to mental disorders are not affected in the real sense and they take everything in their stride,” says Dr. Arshad.

The psychiatrist, while dwelling on the role of people falling under the positive category of PTSD cases, says that such persons are encouraged to take up challenges in their lives and their disorder does not make any difference to them.

“These people take things in a positive manner and want to achieve excellence in their field. They become totally different in their lives and want to achieve those goals which they had not dreamt of. Their action becomes useful not only for themselves, but for the family as well as society. At the same time, they want to play important roles, and it is due to this reason that they are ready to take on more and more responsibilities,” says Dr. Arshad.

Touching upon the condition of people who are classical examples of PTSD, the psychiatrist says that such people are greeted by past events every now and then. He adds that such events tend to disturb the mental make up of the affected people and they return to the time when they became patients of PTSD.

“These people are welcomed by flashbacks and are also greeted by vivid dreams as well as recurrent unfortunate incidents. They want to come out of such situations, but somehow the ghosts of turmoil and conflict haunt them on a regular basis. They are stuck with trauma and they’re also distressed to the hilt. They are hogged by trauma every time and despite their efforts to come out of the same, they are unable to do that,” he says.

The psychiatrist says that right now two or three patients affected by PTSD visit him and at the same time, he also has some follow up cases. He says that females form the least survival group as they are pre-disposed.

“It has been observed that middle-aged women and young men falling in the age groups of 35-55 and 20-40 years are somewhat prone to mental disorders since they are hogged by tension and other related things. These people usually come up with simple disorders such as headache and palpitations. Since they are in the prime of their life, they get mentally disturbed whenever they feel that the things are not going in the right direction,” says Dr. Arshad.

Referring to a survey carried out by him in 1999, the psychiatrist says that it takes four to seven years for a person affected by PTSD to reach the concerned doctor. He adds that the patients suffering from PTSD start showing improvement after eight weeks of treatment.

“It is important that society supports PTSD patients so that they are able to start life afresh. In most cases, it has been seen that economical position leads to mental disorders. In many cases, complete remedy is not possible and I believe the solution lies outside biology. Society should not disband people affected by PTSD, and it is imperative that complete support is provided to such persons,” said Dr Arshad.

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—About our writer: Jehangir writes for chillibreeze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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