Mind over Matter: Positive psychiatry is new buzz attracting young professionals

Nagpur: As the awareness about sound mental health increases, the hesitation in visiting a psychiatrist to detect and treat their mental issues has gone down significantly among the young generation.
Still, these visits are mostly clinical and usually aimed at reducing the symptoms and relapse prevention of issues like depression, anxiety, etc. Well, the version next is already here and it’s Positive psychiatry, relatively a new term in the field of mental health.
“It’s not only treatment of symptoms, but also promotion of well-being,” said psychiatrist Dr Kanak Gillurkar-Sharma, the first and arguably the only trained positive psychiatrist in Vidarbha (second only in Maharashtra so far). She has a unique set of qualifications of studying Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and Positive Psychiatry from the University of Sydney (Australia).
“This trend is gaining popularity in countries like USA, Australia, Singapore, Japan etc where people wish to stay focused and positive for professional as well as personal lives,” said Dr Kanak.
“It’s about a dual approach to mental health, where we build strengths, supports, and healthy lifestyles as well as treat illnesses and distresses,” she said. Dr Kanak said many young professionals, who don’t have any mental health issue come to her to get the positivity counseling. She tells them about positive psychosocial characteristics.
“These are small interventions that we generally neglect in our day-to-day life. Like resilience, gratitude, optimism, social engagement, spirituality. Many of us forget about their personal mastery and self efficacy. Together, when we speak, we can regain all these,” she said.
Positive environmental characteristics like family relations, social supports, religiosity, schooling and college environment, relationship with siblings, affect person’s way of thinking as well as overall health.
Senior psychiatrist Dr Nikhil Pande said that the positive psychiatry has multiple benefits for common people. “Firstly, they detect your pre-mental illness conditions very effectively and treat them without medication. Secondly, they make you realize your own potential which benefits a lot in professional life,” he said adding that this trend has picked up very quickly all over the world.