You are not alone!

How often have you been asked to chill and relax, even by the closest of your confidante when you went up to them in a hyperventilating and anxious mode? How often have you been asked casually that you need to go out and socialise when you told someone that you are feeling claustrophobic ad isolated? I have been told this very recently by someone close to me and what took me aback was the response "Just stop thinking!" as if I do not know that already!

The issue is people are not educated enough about anxiety and loneliness as an epidemic, while anxiety is looked up as an opposite to "chill" loneliness is considered as a situation where the lead of a movie refuses to let go of the past.

The facts are indeed very different :

In 2004, the National Sample Survey Office reported that 4.91 million people in India were living alone and suffered from loneliness. More recently, the National Mental Health Survey of India (2015-16) reported that high suicidal risk is an increasing concern in India; that children and adolescents are vulnerable to mental disorders; and, mental disorders, including depression and anxiety, affect nearly 10 per cent of the population.

Indeed the solutions look simple but the struggle is equally difficult. It is a request to all who face feeling anxieties & loneliness, please take up the fight on your own and speak out & seek professional support and all those who care, instead of stating the obvious, help people in their struggle by being patient, listening out & motivating them to seek help.