By Ahmet Abdulaziz……..
The other day I was reading the observations of Dr. Kuzeymen Balıkcı, who mentioned that there are more than 500 million patients in the world with psychological problems. As he mentioned a large number of such patients either commit or think of committing suicide.
According to the World Health Organisation, as referred to by Dr. Balikcı, the number of people 
committing suicide is more than 800,000 annually. But what is more important is the fact that on average out of 30 suicidal attempts, one ends up in death. That gives us an incredible number of people world over who attempt suicide. All this ultimately leads us to the number of persons who are having psychological disorders.
Depression is the most common form of psychological disorder. We cannot say that depression is a modern times sickness, since it has always been there in one form or another. But there is no doubt that there are too many people suffering from one or another form of depression.
With these views of Dr. Balikci, i looked around myself, at the people with whom I come across frequently. Looking around we see people having behavioural problems due to their psychological disorders. Frequently we come across people with depression. They react to the normal and usual problems in a different manner.
I have got an interesting personal observation, from our day to day lives. The cultural practice everywhere is to respond “I am fine”, for every “How are you”, query. We know that all is not well, but still we say, “I am fine”. This is an interesting social behaviour. Why does a person who is not fine, and having problems, find himself bound to give a unrealistic reply? I think that generally people do not want to mention their worries and do not want to share their problems with others.
But the very reason behind all types of psychological disorders, is the fact that people usually bury their worries and problems inside their heart, and avoid 
discussing them with others. The psychologists recommend that we must discuss our problems with others. Discussing with others has got two positive aspects. The first one is that this way one feels relieved of the burden of keeping the problem secret, and secondly the chance of finding out the reason and solution of the problem increases, when more than one person tries to address it.
I think this is what the psychiatrists do. They ask the patients to speak out. They make the patients believe that they are ready to listen to their views and griefs, which nobody else had listened to. The psychiatrists in fact are those who make the patient believe that they are much nearer and friendly to them, as compared to others. But how come the psychiatrists succeed in making people believe so. Why others cannot make them believe so? I think people start having psychological disorders when they find people are not giving them attention. When they start believing that no one would listen to them. Their sickness increases when in fact the people around them really do not listen to them. Unfortunately this is reality.
The dilemma of the present times is that we are all too busy. We do not have free time, not even for ourselves. We do not have time to address even our own problems. We have developed a habit of running after something all the time. Parents do not have time to listen to their children. The children do not have time to listen to their parents. Friends no more have time to listen to their friends. In the present day friends have almost the same topics, i.e. sports, politics, etc etc, when they sit together. They rarely speak out about their personal problems.
When people do not share their personal problems with each other, they find themselves alone to face them. Facing a problem without any support, coupled with related in-joint problems, finds 
himself unable to cope. The more he tries to overcome the situation the more he falls deep inside it. This is depression. Feeling lonely, unable to cope with the problems alone. This is what we all have with different degrees.
We all fall into depression, sometimes we come out and sometimes not. But the reality is that the more we get the support of people around us, the more chance there is of coming out of the depression. Discussing our problems and feelings with others is nothing to be shy or afraid of. What we are going through in fact is what others too are passing through. They too have the same problems. But they too do not voice their problems and discuss them. Thus we all frequently fall into depression.
So, it is the time to realise the importance of sharing our feelings, our problems with others, if we want this world to be a happier and lovelier place in which to live.
Just do it.
