Mental Health And Lifestyle Of Metropolitan Cities

A number of the population is suffering from mental health issues and these figures are high in metropolitan cities but many people ignore it and let them go untreated, but if mental health is not taken seriously, a deteriorating mental state can greatly affect your quality of life. Globally, 1 out of 4 people experience mental health problems and mental disorders account for 7.4 % of the burden of disease and it is the leading cause of long-term disability worldwide.

City dwellers are at higher risk of mental health problems as compared to people from rural areas. The environment where one lives inadvertently affects the mental health of that individual.

The way city life is designed can affect people in two key ways: increasing stimuli, and stripping away of protective factors.

One study revealed that urban settlers are at a 40 percent higher risk of depression; over 20 percent would be more vulnerable to get anxiety and the risk for schizophrenia is almost double in cities in addition to loneliness, isolation, and stress.

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Many people move out of the comfort zones of their homes in the quest to find better employment opportunities, education, and living standards. But, the living cost also increases as and when a person moves to the city life many factors can affect their mental health, like maybe when a migrant is not able to meet the expectations of his life or transfer in jobs, changing the workplace or finding better opportunities, a person needs to mingle with new people or the society to feel at ease, and adjusting and adapting to new social conditions can be challenging.

Stress is a common phenomenon that people from all areas go through. But, do you know people from metropolitan cities tend to experience stress on a higher level? Cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Bangalore where the city lights attract people, these cities even create stress and the reasons for this are numerous. Cities workers are stressed, anxious, and irritable. It seems that our surroundings impact us in more ways than one can imagine.

Stress is basically a feeling of physical or emotional tension. The reason for its occurrence can vary, it can be from any event or thought that may make a person feel angry, frustrated, or nervous.

WHO labeled India as the most depressed country in the world. People dealing with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorders, and schizophrenia were maximum in India and much of them were underreported

Lifestyle in metropolitan cities depends from individual to individual but there is no denying that city life can be very stressful and it can impact your mental health and overall wellbeing. People are connected virtually but disconnected emotionally which affects human beings on a higher level. The lifestyle in cities like nuclear families, living conditions, social isolation, workplace stressors, urban congestion, and lesser engagement among people is impacting mental health as well as overall wellbeing in a big way. It is even attributed to rising lifestyle diseases.

The traffic jam and the noise from vehicles all add to stress. Life of many people in metro cities starts with noise and being stuck in traffic jams which automatically start their day with stress and this shows how stressful a city life can be.

People who are in cities experience an increased stimulus level like noise, crowding, density, sights, smells, pollution, disarray, and intensity of other inputs. Every corner of the city environment is deliberately designed to assert messages and meanings, these stimuli trigger action and thought on a latent level of awareness and it seems more powerful as an inability to cope sets in. This overloaded information can have many effects like increasing the body's baseline levels of arousal stress and preparedness. Over time people may seek social isolation which can create mental health problems.

The National Mental Health Survey in India in 2015-16 reiterated the growing burden of mental health issues in metropolitan cities. Higher suicide rates, substance use disorders, and dementia are more prevalent in cities than in rural areas.

Are you experiencing mental health problems?

If yes, contact a psychologist or a life coach.

Recommending Psychologists and Therapists are

1. Life Coach Steffi Prasad - Psychologist & Therapists - Utopia Life Coach in Siliguri, West Bengal, India.

www.steffiprasad.com

2. Khusboo Tomar - Psychologist: Centre for Forensic & Clinical Psychology