On the occasion of 20th Anniversary of the Schizophrenia Research Foundation (SCARF), I was thinking what thoughts I can share with the organizers, medical scientists, psychologists, distinguished guests and all members of the SCARF family present here. As part of this event, I understand that the SCARF and World Psychiatric Association are launching the Anti-Stigma Programme, which is a noble human welfare mission. I understand, nearly 1.5 to 2% of the population suffers from schizophrenia with nearly equal probability in men and women. It is found that some members of the society who are around them are not always supportive and considerate for their unusual behaviour. Breaking away of the personality from the reality is called Schizophrenia by the medical profession. The causes of schizophrenia could be genetic, biological, constitutional, psychological, inter-personal or socio-cultural and its manifestation takes place more often during adolescent period. This aberration as a whole de-stabilizes young people in their prime, almost derailing the journey of their destinies. How can the medical community, family and the society collectively find a solution to this problem?

Multi-disciplinary dimensions of Schizophrenia

The confusion between mind and brain has always perplexed the medical scientists. Answer to the questions like ?What is the mind?? and ?Who am I?? don?t lie in the domain of philosophers and psychologists alone. Molecular biologists and neurologists are formulating their own theories. This phenomenon leads to different types of situations. First there is a presence of energy system in the existence of a soul that enters and lives in a personality over a life-time. This eternal entity is capable of both withdrawing into a slumber and tapping the universal energy of divinity and collective consciousness for its empowerment. Second, there is heritable sensory and biological component to the personality and behavioural traits. Third, as I understand, no definitive psycho-pharmacology recommendations are available for specific groups of patients with personality disorders. However, schizophrenia needs to be prevented at primary, secondary or at tertiary levels. Even if we are not in a position to prevent schizophrenia at the primary level, we may hope to arrest the disease at the secondary level. This may be facilitated if we have a supportive socio-legal-political system. I suggest that psychologists, molecular biologists, neurologists and physiologists along with sociologists, law-makers and politicians should all work together and find appropriate interventions for facilitating recovery and rehabilitation of such patients.

Importance of love for healthy growth

Personality and mental disorders start as nearly a more than normally unbalanced state of the psyche brought about by a certain chain of circumstances or happenings from birth which varies greatly from person to person and usually commences with the phenomena known as psychological abandonment. The basics of this subject are simple. Every human being learns its first lesson of love as a baby and small child from its mother. If that did not occur, then that child will be susceptible to behavioral problems in later years because he or she has never learnt to love and cannot form a satisfactory relationship of any reasonable integrity or duration. There may be other factors but that is where it all starts. This being the case, I would suggest, the SCARF should mount a programme in which they should propagate the importance of preventing the feeling of abandonment among the children by their families. This can be done through their counseling and assistance programmes which they are carrying out among the patients and their families. More than treating the patient, it is important to emphasize the need for propagating love among the children, which could be carried to the neighbourhood by the suffering family members.

Harmony between physical, emotional and mental body

The personality consists of the physical body, the emotional body and the mental body. In a fully developed personality, three vehicles are synthesized into a harmoniously working unit. This means that there is an alignment of the mind and feelings so that our outer actions are expressed in a balanced manner. It is the goal of every spiritually active person to create such an integration of lower self for, it is then only with the correct alignment of forces that consistent soul contact can occur. It is essential to make the actual link between the lower and higher selves to form a rainbow bridge. This way the soul?s presence would become ever-increasing realities. Until a fairly advanced state of personal evolution is reached in which there is a fusion between the lower and higher selves, everything about the personality is either inherited or created and assumed temporarily. When the soul?s presence enters and is experienced through the physical body, a very perceptible change in our physical energy is occurred. We appear to radiate. This radiance is felt and experienced by those sensitive enough to perceive it as warmth, a loving essence, quite different from the heat of natural vitality and sensuality. Such an enlightened person emanates a distinct physical energy which is not intrusive into the space of others, but nevertheless, penetrates and most often uplifts them. I would suggest the members of the SCARF to graduate themselves to this state of consciousness which will enable them to transmit their love and compassion to the community which will light the lamp of happiness amongst many families.

Conclusion

Personality and mental disorders are more widespread than we imagine. In urban Indian society there are a number of cases of split which is identical to schizophrenia. Many of us have our own peculiarities - the only difference is that the schizophrenic is drowning in the same water in which we are all able to swim - that is the water of consciousness. But schizophrenic has a tendency to go back to the domain of unconsciousness. If we understand this phenomenon, we will never attach any stigma to schizophrenia and to any person suffering from personality disorders. SCARF should be able to come up with a definitive plan for all those professionals who are concerned with this particular disorder to provide synergy in their approach. All that the patient needs is our understanding that the patient?s strange actions are not deliberate but arise out of certain anomaly in the physical, emotional and mental body. This understanding will be the first step in removing the stigma attached to these patients. If we develop this attitude then instead of stigma, compassion will be promoted. This compassion could become the starting point for recovery of the patient towards a normal life. This is a very noble action and really a service to the God.

My best wishes to the anti-stigma movement of SCARF.

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