Mental wellbeing matters to all if
you face a mental health problem, you’re not alone! Everyone is presently
focused on something in such tough days that may be oneself, a dream, or a
vision for the foreseeable future ahead.

This is a reminder to slow down
and take a pause to acknowledge that strength lies profoundly in trusting in
oneself, particularly in those times where the mind is full of self-doubt but
you have to channel that energy towards self-belief.

While speaking with Johnson Thomas, co-founder of AASRA Suicide
Prevention NGO, an organization aimed at providing the distressed and the
suicidal with supportive, qualified, and effective confidential care and
assistance, much is required particularly during these difficult times.

Here’s what Johnson had
to unfold in relation to the prevailing pandemic and its consequences:

What kinds of challenges or cases did your
organization come across during the lockdown period?

“Aasra is an
emotional support service over the telephone. Providing people with first aid
psychological counseling, but for this, they need to contact us, we get calls
from all facets of life, because of the recent quarantine, we have taken a
substantial number of calls from the past 3-4 months, with various issues such
as loss of family members or employment, reduced salaries or no earnings at
all, struggling to pay debts or even manage food, relationship concerns,
students with shorter attention span and experiencing study disturbances, and
also people having personal space issues too.”

What kind of support should be expected if one
gets in touch with your volunteers?

“If absolutely
required, we provide them with references to people willing to help them with
their situation, for example, the widest possible people were struggling to
obtain rations during the lockdown, so we connected them with others who aided
them with food and essentials.”

Johnson urges people to
connect with Aasar, an avenue to talk more about their situation and stress
without any fear of judgment or criticism from anywhere in the world on their
24/7 helpline number with professional emotional support volunteers.

During these stressful times, your window
of patience will be tested but with the right guidance and attitude, you can
decide what your new normal can be to maintain positivity.

Always remember two steps forward, one step
backward is still one step forward, so keep your head high and break the
silence.

Aasra has a 24/7 worldwide suicide
prevention helpline number, you can connect with them here http://www.aasra.info/helpline.html