Doctors, Psychiatrists Need to Read What Daily Hatred, Fear, Anxiety Means for Muslims in India https://thewire.in/rights/doctors-psychiatrists-need-to-read-what-daily-hatred-fear-anxiety-means-for-muslims-in-india by Prof Mohan Rao
The vast majority of the people from the Muslim community are being brought down to nothingness that mental health professionals in India do not recognise.
It is not just Muslims whose lives are traumatised, shortened, brutalised and filled with fear and anxiety, the same occurs among Hindus as well. They do not face brutality, nor are they threatened for their lives, but their lives, too, are restricted in imagination, in comfort and togetherness. Their souls are shrivelled, for they too act out of fear, a potent political weapon.
They miss out on the richness of Muslim culture and history, and get trapped in their own xenophobic ghettos. I am convinced that this strengthens patriarchy and the control of women’s lives among Hindus.
Study Says A New Lens Is Needed to Look at Mental Health of Indian Muslims https://thewire.in/health/new-lens-mental-health-india-muslims-communalism-trauma The report covers the social, emotional and financial burden that the Muslim community has had to face in the country due to the dramatic rise in communal polarisation and hate crimes over the past few years. When violence, discrimination and humiliation are ongoing, their impact cannot be fully understood just through established clinical terms like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The trauma responses are also ongoing and cyclic and need a newer lens and approach to redefine the meanings of mental health, selfhood, resilience, and survival, says social activist and researcher Hasina Khan..
The loss of community, the study says, severely affects one’s sense of confidence and surety about navigating a difficult situation in legal cases or simply rebuilding one’s life after a violent incident. “An all-pervading sense of being made to feel powerless in front of a fascist state and hateful ideology, which has forced several Muslim victims of communal violence to change how they live their lives, is the most important point that has emerged from our work,”
“PTSD better describes the experiences of an American soldier who goes to Iraq to bomb and goes back to the safety of the United States. He’s having nightmares and fears related to the battlefield and his fears are imaginary. Whereas for a Palestinian in Gaza whose home was bombarded, the threat of having another bombardment is a very real one. It’s not imaginary. There is no ‘post’ because the trauma is repetitive and ongoing and continuous.” - https://qz.com/1521806/palestines-head-of-mental-health-services-says-ptsd-is-a-western-concept