Mumbaikars live on the edge

MUMBAI: Anxiety and phobias are high on Mumbai''s top-five ailments list, says Dr Bharat Shah of Lilavati Hospital. He recalls a patient who left a well-paying MNC job because he found air travel too worrisome.
"Another patient sold his business and left the city because every time he started driving, he felt tense and started getting chest pain and palpitations," Dr Shah says.
Freny Mahendra, director of Samaritans, an NGO, recalls how a patient was worried stiff about going up in the elevator. "We are seeing more cases of obsessive and compulsive disorders in which the person keeps washing his hands or keeps opening and closing drawers," she says.
The bottomline, say experts, is that many of these people need help— whether it is someone who hyper-ventilates because of a feeling that "something willgo wrong" or is worried that something bad will happen to him\her.
Unfortunately, most such individuals fail to recognise their symptoms as a mental ailment. "Many persons first go to a general practitioner and land up with mental health experts only when clinical diagnoses and tests reveal that nothing is physically wrong with them," says Dhavale.
Ditto with cases of psychosomatic problems in which patients develop an asthmatic attack, a rash, hyperacidity, or irritable bowel syndrome.
A study conducted by Nair Hospital, with the assistance of psychiatrist Rajesh Parikh, showed that a large number of patients who visit general physicians have psychiatric symptoms.
An area of special concern is the mental health of children. "Parents increasingly come to us complaining ''my son is too aggressive'' or ''he is not studying''," says Harish Shetty.
Child psychologist and counsellor Anureet Sethi believes this is because of immense academic pressure. "Children come home from school and rush to tuitions with scarcely any time for play. This lack of activity results in their physical energy manifesting itself as aggression," says Sethi.
However, not all experts believe that Mumbai is an ocean of mental illness. Dr Vihang Vahia, who is attached to the BMC-run Cooper Hospital as well as Breach Candy, says, "We all carry on with stress, but it doesn''t impair us all."
He points to the fact that when it comes to exam stress, only a few children commit suicide. "The challenge lies in recognising the sensitive and vulnerable types and helping them," he says.