Counselling

Let's understand that counselling is a profession which requires professional training and certification.
Along with continuous academic and self development work.
A one or two days of workshop (or sometimes not even that!) does not entitle one to practice as a professional counsellor.
In a country, where awareness about mental health issues is nearly non existent, unqualified people masquerading as counsellors is making the matters worse!

People need to understand that just soliciting 'good advice' has absolutely nothing to do with counselling.

Advice may be sought or given by parents, teachers, friends, well wishers, neighbours or just about anyone.

If one benefits from these, please do make use of them.
However, none of the above qualifies as  professional counselling.

Should they have, what would be the necessity of having a separate group of professionals called counsellors?

There is a huge need of professionally qualified mental health workers/counsellors in India.

It is my earnest request to anyone who wishes to work in this field to first get the required professional qualification.

Masquerading as a counsellor, when you are not one, might be a financially lucrative option, however, it plays havoc with the lives and minds of people who need professional help.

India sincerely needs a lot of trained mental health professionals.
Please do come forward and offer the much needed professionally trained support in the area of mental health.

Together, let us create a healthier, happier and an aware world.

ADHD

ADHD is generally ignored in medical education. About 1 in every 5 people who walks into a mental health office is going to have ADHD.The problem is that the diagnosis is routinely missed, and that’s because very few physicians have any training whatsoever in the field.

A clinician should use the symptom guidelines outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder – 5th Edition, along with standardized and normative ratings and using the Connors Rating Scale, the Child Behavior Checklist, the Strengths and Difficulties Checklist, and the ADHD Rating Scale. “Parents and teachers can complete these and the clinician can score them and determine the probability that a child is in the extreme range compared to the national average.

Unfortunately, the DSM-V guidelines are severely child focused, so a clinician evaluating an adult’s symptoms must take the extra step of interviewing family members, friends, and even colleagues. “The accuracy of diagnosis is much, much higher if you have input from two or more informants who have information about symptoms in several settings.

Besides,70% of children, adolescents and adults with an ADHD nervous system will have at least one other psychiatric diagnosis; 57% will have two or more, underscoring the prevalence of comorbid conditions existing alongside ADHD.

And then there are all those medical and psychological conditions that mimic ADHD. “These include a history of trauma, mood disorders, developmental delays, and a laundry list of medical and metabolic conditions… like sleep disorders and thyroid disorders.

Your doctor should recognize this, conduct a detailed medical history, and include screening tests for related conditions in his or her thorough ADHD evaluation.

Depression

Depression is an illness that has become one of the most widespread disorders in the world today.
It currently affects about 350 million people worldwide – and the problem is getting worse.
Around one million people every year commit suicide because they are suffering from depression,
and year on year that figure rises at an alarming rate.

By the year 2020, depression will have become second only to heart disease as a cause of premature death.

In the United States and Northern Europe, around 10% of people over the age of 12 are currently taking antidepressants to ease their depressive symptoms.

Just think about that for a second – If this is the case, if so many people are taking drugs for depression and these drugs are so easily available,
then why is the problem getting worse?