Superheros of the Hidden Battles

By Khurram Khalili

He Woke up early in the morning, took a shower, had breakfast, dressed up and left for work. At workplace, performed the assigned tasks along with interacting and socializing with colleagues in a friendly manner. Came back to home after spending the entire day of hard work but still managed to keep a smile on his face for the ones waiting for him at home, spent some time with them, had dinner and went to bed for sleep. Seems to be the kind of day which is well spent by him with an ease.

What if I told you that his entire day was full of battles, the battles which no one has a hint of, but only himself. Here, the question arises, who is HE? HE is a superhero, yes you read that right, a superhero with great superpowers, a superhero who knows how to fight with inner demons, who knows that it is perfectly okay to go through mental hardships, who knows that he is not alone as everyone in this world is going through something which disturbs them mentally, something like an evil force which tries to drain out all the positivity from their inner self. But he knows that this is the point where the life is offering him an adventure to pursue, an adventure to fight against evil, against all odds and emerge as a hero, a hero who can inspire many others to become heroes.

Mental Health Issues in Pakistan are increasing with an alarming pace. Around 14 million people in Pakistan are suffering from mental health issues. Mental health issue is the most neglected area that needs to be discussed on a frequent basis. Most common mental disorders include depression, schizophrenia and epilepsy. The primary reason why these mental disorders attain severity with the passage of time is the silence of people going though them. However, it is not their fault either. The main culprit here is the norm of our society which restricts them to speak up, as if they will speak up about their mental insecurities the world will begin to judge them or will tag them as mentally unfit or retards.

So why not together we create a culture of accepting that each one of us is going through something in our lives which keeps challenging us mentally in some way or the other. But from now on why shouldn’t we treat such mental challenges as adventures i.e. the adventures with endless opportunities, the opportunities to become heroes, the heroes who never give up, who fight till the end and emerge victorious. Lets create a culture of openly and expressively talking about our mental insecurities and how we are battling against them, how we are putting up a fight each and every day against them and how we are keep winning small battles against them each and every day i.e. from waking up from bed despite of all the negative forces that resist us to leave the bed to coming back to bed at night after successfully seeing through all the hardships of the day with the smile on our face and also with the support of our loved ones, the supporting heroes.

All of us need to play two roles in our lives i.e. the role of a hero in our life and the role of a supporting hero in the life of others, for those we care about and love them. It is commonly said that not all superheroes wear cape, rightly said. But, in addition, I would like to say that not all superpowers can be seen, some can only be felt, and fighting with your inner demons i.e. with your mental disorders is one of those superpowers because our brain is the most powerful organ of the human body and conquering it is not less than a superpower.

So let’s begin fighting today, but the first step towards the progress is the acceptance. It is important that first we accept that we are not okay, and then accept that it is perfectly okay not to feel okay sometimes. It is okay to feel anxious at times, it is okay to feel depressed, it is okay to feel sad, it is okay to feel scared, it is okay to feel shy and it is okay to feel whatever you are going through at that moment. Because only after acceptance, we can advance towards the stage of betterment i.e. the stage of improving ourselves by fighting the inner battles going inside our head.

And while fighting battles, it is also okay to seek help of others i.e. the help of your family, your loved ones or an expert in mental health issues as there is a certain reason why there are always supporting heroes in the story of a hero. But remember, it is always a hero who turns the fortune in his or her favor in the end, so will you do in your story as well, and in case you don’t, then remember, my dear, it is not the end. Fighting mental disorders is not easy, but you too, were never meant to be born for easy.

You were born to do wonders and wonders, my dear, require the best version of yourself, the version of a superhero with the strongest superpower in the world - the superpower of fighting the hidden battles of mind.