Our society: A treacherous society

IMPHAL MONDAY 13 OCTOBER 2014
IMPHAL MONDAY
13 OCTOBER 2014
Depression of later life (old age)
Dr K Shatibala Devi
Today's Thought
That which does not kill us makes us
stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche.
Child labour and education for girl child
Central points of Nobel prize
Children and education. One a child labour
activist and the other a champion for children’s education. Kailash Satyarthi and
Malala Yousafzai. One an Indian and the
other a Pakistani. In naming the two as the
winners of this year’s Nobel Peace prize, the
Nobel Committee has succeeded in making a
powerful statement particularly at this point
of time when tension between the two countries is running palpably high. Not that the
award will help to ease tension between the
two countries which have been at war at
least three times, but in naming the two as
the co-winners of the Peace prize, a significant statement has been delivered. Nothing
much in common between the two but central to the two characters is the never say
die spirit towards a cause they believe in.
Protecting the rights of children and championing the cause of education for the girl
child. Heroes in many sense of the term, but
not something which have come easy to
them. If Satyarthi had to resign from a comfortable job to dedicate his life towards
children’s rights for well over three decades,
Malala on the other hand had to fight not
only the bullet which nearly snuffed out her
life but also a repressive mindset which is still
caught in a time warp that education is not
meant for the girl child. Takes more than
mortal courage and guts to speak out for
something as universal as education for the
girl child. Again not easy to give up a cushy
job and embark on a mission so that the
rights of children are not violated, especially
in a country like India which has seen and
experienced the scourge of child labour for
decades.
Understandably the spotlight is on
Satyarthi and Malala but for the Nobel Peace
prize to have any real meaning and substance, it would do a whole lot of good to
mankind, if the lessons learnt from the decision of the Nobel Committee are not allowed
to be lost. Central to the decision to bestow
the award on the two characters is the underlying need to take up the cause of
children, wherever they may be. Protecting
the rights of children and championing the
cause of girl education should not and cannot be viewed only through the prism of
awards. Recognition and acknowledgement
for the work they have done is no doubt important and the Nobel Committee has done
its job but more important would be for the
world as a whole to understand the significance of the award. And certainly working
and contributing towards the causes which
they have taken up will go a long way in underlining the point that the rights of all
children and education of the girl child is fundamental to humanity. Children’s rights and
education for the girl child should be accorded the primacy that they deserve. It
would be in the fitness of things too if the
world, especially India and Pakistan see the
Peace prize as something more than the
rights of children and education for the girl
child but the need to maintain peace and
harmony between two nuclear power neighbours.
Etc.. etc...
Alarm rings on how uptake if existing
prevention options for anal STIs and HIV
Bobby Ramakant, Citizen News Service (CNS)
Dr Ishwar Gilada, President of AIDS Society of India,
and a noted HIV physician who was among the first few
medical professionals who responded to HIV care when
first case was diagnosed in India, was moderating this
panel discussion at AIDS 2014. "Unsafe sexual practices
among transgender women were rare at that time when I
did my study with Hijra community in 1983-1984. We
could never have imagined then that Hijra community will
come to International conferences. People used to laugh at
them when transgender people used to come to JJ Hospital
for care. I started a special clinic in OPD from 2pm-4pm
in 1983 at JJ Hospital for transgender people. Back then
we used to write male or female H (Hijra) as sex, but it
took decades for government to finally recognize the third
gender."
Dr Badri N Saxena, Chair of Microbicides Expert Group
of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said (via
web link) that there is hardly any choice under national
HIV or STI prevention programmes except barrier method
such as male condoms (female condoms are limited to very
few targeted interventions or other social marketing initiatives). Few more options are available in private healthcare
sector such as vaginal creams. Dr Saxena pointed out that
there are 30 million episodes of STIs annually. Dr Saxena
also advocated for a need-based phased introduction of PreExposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) to provide another option to
MSM people who might benefit from expanded range of
HIV and non-HIV STI prevention options.
'Invisible' key population
Dr RR Gangakhedkar, Deputy Director, National AIDS
Research Institute, ICMR said (via web link) that according
to the mapping estimates there are 0.412 million MSM in
India. Overall HIV prevalence rate among MSM is 4.4%
and TGs is 8.8% (2011). There are targetted interventions
(TIs) for both key populations in India offering STI services, linkage with HIV testing and care services, condom
promotion, peer education, outreach, among others. There
are over 201 MSM TIs that include over 37 communitybased organizations-led TIs. Coverage as per the MSM
population estimates is over 70%. Additionally, a program
named "Pehchan" is also being implemented. 20 TIs are
exclusively for transgender people.
Dr Gangakhedkar added: Though the overall coverage is
Depression is a very common mental illness and about 1
in 7 people experience a depressive episode during their
lifetime. Depression usually have a recurrence or even a
chronic course thereby leading to significance impairment in
psychosocial functioning which account for the fourth leading
course of disability. The economic cost can be staggering,
spent on medical treatment and also loss of productivity and
premature deaths worldwide. Depression affects suffered by
women then in men and reasons implicated are hormones,
more psychosocial stressors suffered by women and childbirth. Depression occurs before age 20yrs in 40%, 50% in age
group 20yrs to 50yrs and 10% after 50yrs of age.
Depression illness disorder in later life is linked to poor
health which adds to the many medical illness common in the
age.
How do we know one has depression?
From time to time one experience low mood, sadness
depending on the situations and events. But in depression
there is a qualitative change in mood which is intense and
uncomfortable, associated with other physical symptoms of
appetite and sleep, problem and in many areas of functioning.
There is sense of emptiness and sadness and others will
see them as off mood or tearful. Interest and pleasure in all
activities will be diminished with lack of attention and concentration, feeling dull and lethargic. There may be poor appetite
or increase in appetite leading to weight loss or weight leading
to weight loss or weight gain and also difficulty sleeping
either of increased sleeping and sleepiness. Restlessness or
retardation both mentally and physically. Weakness, fatigue
and loss of energy is another complaint. Inability to take
decision and sense of worthlessness, hopelessness, inappropriate guilt feeling and recurrent thought of death, desire to
suicide or making attempt to end life. The above mentioned
symptoms if present most of the day, almost every day for a
period of two weeks affecting previous level of functioning
can be diagnosed as having depressive illness.
Types of depression in later life may be mild depressive
disorder, moderate depression and severe depression. In mild
depression the symptoms are felt as distressing but can symptoms felt as distressing but can continue to function in life
relatively normal. In moderate type symptoms are subjectively
more distressed than in mild form and though they can maintain their daily life function, they struggle with considerable
difficulty. However in severe depression there is marked
distress and are often agitated or retarded and their ability to
function in their usual role is severely limited and impaired.
Presenting symptoms
1. Age-related factors: Late life depressive disorders in
older people usually complain less of sadness than younger
adults and more concerned on physical health. Hypochondrial
complaints are the mainstay with several unexplained pain
syndromes such as aches and pain of joints, back pain, chest
pain, abdominal pain or musculoskeletal pain of any part of
the body. Other symptoms present are insomnia, sense of
loneliness, forgetfulness anxiousness, tenseness, changes in
personality traits behavioural disorder, inappropriate concern
of bowel movement, disturbance in appetite, late-onset abuse
of alcohol etc. since the complaints are mostly physical rather
than emotion, with minimal expression of sadness, and diagnosis of depression may be missed.
2. Psychosis: Psychotic symptoms are likely to occur more
higher in late-life depression. They usually present with delusion (false, fixed belief) of having severe medical illness,
delusion of guilt, poverty and worthlessness. When severely
depressed, patients may have delusion that his organs are
damaged and that they are no more alive. Auditory hallucinations or hearing of voice that is not present of saying bad and
negative things about them. There is frequent self murmuring
and self-talking, withdrawal, anger and being hostile as they
feel others are out to harm him or poison him.
3. Apathy and amotivation: Apathy and lack of motivation
is another symptom seen in late life depression where there
is lack of emotional response and goal-directed activity. They
feel fatigue, lethargic and absence of drive, indifference poverty of thought and action. These are seen more so after a
stroke, head injury, neuronal degeneration (dementia)
4. Suicide: Older people with depression are at risk of
committing suicide. Elderly rarer/ take overdoses of medicines
as a means to commit suicide and the means differ from
culture to culture. In the western and pain killers are common
and U.S shooting by firearms among older depressed men are
quite frequent. Suicide attempts among older population are
not to draw attention or suicide threat or by accident. Their
intent ar; serious.
What are the suicide risks in later life depression?
The general factors include those who had past suicide
attempt or episode of self-harm, male gender living alone who
have no social or family support who had experienced negative life events. Presence of longstanding stressors which may
be environmental or financial and presence of chronic medical
conditions including cancer. Elderly who misuse and abuse
alcohol are also at higher risk of committing suicide. Illness
factors such as mental illnesses (mood disorder, psychosis,
substance use) and who have sleep problems, agitation restlessness, guilt feelings, hopelessness and low self-esteem and
hypochondriacal pre-occupations are a major risk factor that
can propel to ending their life. There are also specific behaviours such as suicide intent or plans expressed, altering wills
and severe self-neglect
The type of thought impairment and its significance in
late-life depression
What lead to late-life depression? In late life depression
genetic cause is less but it can be precipitated by negative life
events such as loss(near relatives, financial etc) depression is
more common in women at all age particularly who are widows and divorces mostly due to long standing stress and
difficulties faced by women. Elderly who have had past history of persistent depressions alcohol dependence and
schizophrenia are move at risk. Physical, medical ill-health and
handicap with poor social support, poverty, loneliness and
who have personality problem can also lead to depression in
late-life. Medical conditions and drugs that may cause organic
depressive disorder. Medicals conditions illnesses include
diabetes, thyroid disorder, hypercalcaemia, anaemia and sub
nutrition. Others include heart disease, stroke, brain tumors,
dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease SLE, cancer of lung and pancreases, syphilis, AIDS and other chronic
infections. Drug that arc implicated in causing depression are:
1. Antihypertensive (beta-blockers, reserpine, digoxia,
mifedipine, calcium channel agents etc) 2. Steroids 3. Analgesics (opioids) 4. Antiparkinson 5. Neuroleptics,
benzodiazepines 6. Alcohol, interferon
Common life events and chronic stress that causes
depression
Life events: 1. Death of spouse, offspring 2. Separation 3.
Acute physical illness, life threatening medical, surgical illnesses 4. Sudden displacement or homelessness 5. Major
financial crisis 6. Conflict, quarrel with family or friend and
even 7. Loss or death of a pet.
Chronic stress: 1. Declining health and inability to move
around leading to dependence 2. Impaired memory, hearing
and vision 3. Any major family problem and marital difficulties 4. problems at work place, socio-economic decline and
retirement 5. Being a career of chronically ill and dependent
family members.
Other associated illness with depression in late life
Other illness associated with late life depression cognitive
impairment - depression is highly prevalent in dementia and
chronic depression is a risk factor for dementia.
Stroke and mood disorder
After a stroke in about 20% of patients develop depression
within the first year (3-6 months)
Post stroke emotionalism
Emotional changes following a stroke are common and
effect 20%- 25%. In emotionalism there may be sudden crying
or laughing without any reason or warning. Depressed mood
and emotionalism can occur together.
Coronary heart disease
In 15% to 20% of patients who had coronary event (myocardial infarct or heart failure etc) depressive symptoms occur
further, presence of depression is a risk for cardiac diseases
and early death
With age diabetes type 2 h Diabetes
With age the development of type 2 diabetes increase and
diabetes is associated with development of depression. Research shows that presence of depression in diabetes patients
increase the risk of complications and poorer blood sugar
control. (To be contd)
The writer is Asst. Prof Psych - Dept, JNIMS.
Our society: A treacherous society
Birkarnelzelzit Thiyam
The chaste meaning of a
house and a home has a
chasm. A house is made up of
bricks and stones i.e. with
hands but a home are made up
with hearts. A home consists
of a colossal and a comely
family. And we know a small
family is a happy family. A
small family is like a bird flying in the sky, the right wing
stands for the father and the
left wing stands for the
mother. And the feathers,
rather acting like their children
i.e. gives them hope to fly.
Sometimes when the right
wing and the left wings lack
co-ordination the bird deviates
from the path. And when they
cleaved, the bird no longer
flies. In order not to let the
bird fall, the two wings must
be like our eyes which understand each other so well. They
always streams down tears together when they cry. They
laugh together when they are
happy. They closed together
and opened together. Due to
some execrable trend which is
really excruciating, the above
heavenly lines have become
theoretical.
It is well known fact that
movies are the mirror of our
society. But some daft people
have translated it so well that,
movies have rather became a
turncoat for this society. In
“yaiskhul pakhang angao ba”
the director tries to bring out
the fact that studies and love
cannot go together and we
have to negotiate the love for
becoming a deferential per-
son. But on the other hand
some cretin puts all the
dialogs and acting of hero and
heroine, and how the story
goes by in reality. To divulge
the truth, this act had
misleaded them. And, when
this spring hits their tender
hearts, they are confused between ‘loves’ and ‘like’. As
there is a saying “when you
like a flower, you pluck it and
when you love a flower you
water it”. So this generation
has started plucking own their
lives. This thing mainly happens in co-education schools.
I know the world will commit
a faux pass on disclosing that
the young pillars of our nation
got paired in early age as they
can’t imagine the future because they are in adolescence
stage.
I know the world will be
dumbfounded to know the
mindsets of these sections of
people. Without any financial
limbs people have started setting their foot in married life.
A real love happens only
when the platform of understanding between the two is
very strong. Now, when they
can’t fulfil their crying stomach, their love becomes
poisonous. Numerous cases of
divorce arises base on this
factor. If this thing happens
after having children, the future of the child is left with a
big question mark. And when
their stomach is empty education is beyond the orbit of
their imagination.
Now, let me discuss three
fettle or conditions. First, a
couple in which both male and
female are employed. They are
at peace i.e. they live at
present and hardly financial
crisis happens. And if their
marriage wasn’t an engage,
i.e. a love marriage, they live
more happily. In most of the
engage marriage lack of understanding arises between the
two.
Second, if male is employed and female isn’t. They
are anxious as they live in the
future because they have limited capital and they are afraid
as their future dreams might
not be fulfilled. As the lady is
unemployed, she confines
herself with the household
activities from dusk to dawn.
But all her efforts became
useless in front of the eyes of
the society as she didn’t give
any financial support to the
family. The above figure is
one of the strongest figures to
show that women are looked
down.
Third, if male and female
are both unemployed. They
are depressed i.e. they are living in the past because they
kept repenting as their future
becomes cloudy. In my opinion, for overcoming this
crisis, the only option left with
them is to just get satisfied
with what they are.
Society often says “ladies
have pineapple eyes”, the only
reason is they look for one
who will look after them and
care them. But this don’t happen to all and sundry, there
are some ladies who took
advantage of this.
Now, at this climax what I
would like to highlight is that,
western people are already
developed, especially their
mental status. But for us, we
aren’t developing mentally, instead in fashion. And I feel
that it will be alive and kicking if girls know the condition
of this society, which is lacking in every field. This
noxious trend of turning
youths into fashionista must
be stopped. There must be a
hindrance in the dress they
wear as this will directly or
indirectly become a leading
factor to the loss of our culture. Taking the point that we
are sound enough to understand my lines, I would not
like to differentiate between
celebrities and common people. So, better stop copping
them except the good ones.
Males too took a vital role
in making our society a fiasco. Their hell system is
covered by many thick curtains of lies. They turned
many boons into curses and
the best example for this is the
misuse of mobile phones and
social networks, hiding their
identities. Their nerves are
packed up with physical dominance over ladies. Now a
days, many youths have converted the tuition centres into
dating places, which makes
our society search for her
grave.
The birth of a girl child is
an occasion of despondency
in the family, while that of a
boy is one of great joy and
merriment. The chariot of social life cannot run only with
a single wheel and yet why is
there so little recognition of
the importance of the other
wheel? In most homes women
live a life not better than that
of slaves. There are no better
place than the hewers of wood
and drawers of water. Can a
society in which women are
treated like this make any
progress?
When we get hurt of injured “MOTHER” is the first
word that strikes our tongue.
Once Nepolean bornapard
said “Give me a good mother,
I will rule the world”. We
have the incidents of
“Nupilal”. And we also do
know who are Marry Kom
and Sarita. Now, can we say
that women are the weaker
section of the society or the
vulnerable member? A giant
NO. And there are other many
Himalayan proofs which
needs no mentioned.
Parents are the ones who
must take a vital role for a
strong future. Let’s assume
that parents are the horse riders and the horse itself is the
child. And they are on a track
which cannot be deviated in
all likelihood i.e. on the road
to success. Many grasses are
growing by the side of the
road which denotes bad
things. Now, it is the horse
that has to move on, not the
rider. When the horse slows
down, the rider strikes to
move on. And when the horse
tries to eat the side grasses,
the rider pulls it back to the
track. But now a day, parents
have become a turncoat for
them. Buying of mobiles,
motor cycles, etc by the parents for their children is my
main concerned here. When
the parents buy these things
for their children, it’s same as
the rider cutting the grass and
feeding the horse. This is the
problem for this kaliyuga.
In the culmination, to stay
away from these above obnoxious stories, a proper
family planning should be
done. Small family is a happy
family as less opinion comes
up. Dowry must be abolished
and it can be done only
through the light of education.
To have less number of children so that parents can give
them maximum care. And parents must be very open to their
children. The above mentioned
problems and solutions are not
parables but the facts. Let’s
maintain parity and parallelism
between male and female. Let’s
not forget the women contribute the second line of defence
in the battle of life.
The mentioned above
problems and solutions are
not parables but the facts.
Let’s maintain parity and parallelism between male and
female. Let’s not forget the
women contribute the second
line of defence in the battle of
life.
The writer is a student of
Sainik School Imphal.
The self-styled showman/humble brags of Facebook
Porcia Soubam
Facebook is supposed to be used to connect with friends
and maybe scope out people who interest you. I do not think
that Facebook should be used to gloat, brag, show-off or try
to make other people feel like losers compared to you.
That’s what I am seeing now when I check FB. It turns
me off. I don’t see the point; in fact, I think showing off on
FB smacks of desperation.
Facebook, in my opinion, should be used for the truth,
should be used to foster genuine, mutually positive social
connections, and it should also be used to announce good
personal news such as the birth of a baby or the publication
of a book. What I’ve been seeing lately, though, is Facebook’s
original purpose twisted as a tool for one-upping others, or
wide-network keeping-up-with-the-Jacks and Joneses. That
makes me sort of sick.
Then I remind myself: they are showing off for a reason.
Perhaps, they are insecure. Because they want to make other
people nervous, maybe (which is frankly sociopathic, isn’t
it?), and at any rate, they are just being sort of stupid or selfcongratulatory.
It’s fine to be happy, of course, and to share good news.
But, if we constantly talk about your great life and great dinner
and great day on FB, does it mean sharing “good news?” No.
I think it’s just you seeming as if you are trying to make other
people feel bad that they don’t have it as great as you.
I have especially good days, too. But I don’t post updates
about what’s great in my life. Besides, if all you seem to do
is brag on Facebook and then I finally see you in person, what
am I supposed to ask you? Remember: I already seem to
know much everything (except for the bad stuff, the likely
truth).
Most of them have a really bad past so to boost their image
in front of people they just status update (check-ins, eating-
out or drinking) or post pictures of themselves having fun.
Nowadays, it’s like a competition between people, to make
each one of them jealous of each other. Facebook is for selfloathing.
The ubiquity of Facebook-status updates have made the
“humblebrag” the de facto method of choice for those wanting
to share their achievements with as many people as possible,
often in lieu of having anything else to say.
I am appalled by this form of “ego-advertising”. The new
clan of publicity-hungry people who wants to show off what
they are up to. Now, people are updating their check-ins at
airports, eating or drinking at this so and so place or staying
at this XYZ hotel. What does this speak off? In short, I would
say empty vessels make more noise. You don’t do these
things often that you think it must be highlighted or you think
there are many people who can’t afford it, so you need to
show them that I am above you people. The moment you step
out of your hometown, you want to show to the world of FB
that you are flying out to some place. How many people are
flying in and out every day, leave India, from your own city.
If every one of us does a check-in, imagine the net traffic.
Remember! You are not the first person travelling by air. In
the flight you have taken, there must be some who have gone
on similar trips many times. Why are the fast food chains
mushrooming in India? It’s the growth… so you are not the
first or the last person to go to MacD, a KFC, Pizza Hut and
so on and so forth. Wake up! Highlight if you have achieved
or re-created history. Deflate that ego…I am at this and that
airport, eatery or hotel. The achievers are the modest ones and
those without intellect/knowledge are the ones with gas, ever
ready to show off what they are up to. Now, which category
do you fall in? The self-styled showman… In FB, I read
somebody updating his status as so and so is flying to the
bathroom. I was amused, thinking he must be someone like
me who is sick and tired. I would appreciate if you do a
check-in before flying to Mars, having breakfast atop Mt
Everest…what you are doing at the moment, many people
have done that again and again. Rivet over it, don’t you think
you are making yourself cheap announcing something which
by any standard is not an achievement or any mean feat, but
some form of cheap publicity. And, why do you think it is
necessary from your side to tell this news (I call it news
because it is something new for your good self). Wake up!
Do not entice others or give a chance to talk behind your back.
Are you on a self-promotion spree to get many “likes”? Has
FB announced any prizes for maximum “likes”? You may
say/think: None of your business… well! It’s not my
business…but, why I am saying this is because in totality, we
have drifted away from the core purpose of networking to
publicity through cheap thrills. Many of your known and
unknown friends would love to see how you look now and
read your progress in life. But the parameter of your progress
is not the check-ins or what you are eating…it is more of what
you achieved as a person. The ego trips, the “ego eatings” and
ego stays in hotels are not the real fun which you have set
out for. Enjoy your trips and stays without the announcements. Are you going on a trip or a holiday or eating out to
show it off to others or for your own relaxation. Capture your
moments worth sharing, but not what hundreds and hundreds
of individuals are doing every minute, sans your style of selfpublicity. There’s a saying: Too much is not good! Don’t over
expose your ego, for in the end you might end up being the
publicity-hungry ego maniac… I say over expose because you
already have some ego, which is why you have done checkin, eating outs and hotel updates. Control our ego, for egos
are not socially palatable.