NUJS Mental Health Cell

08/06/2020

Sexual assault can have a variety of short- and long-term effects on a victim's mental health. Many survivors report flashbacks of their assault, and feelings of shame, isolation, shock, confusion, and guilt. Such victims are at an increased risk for developing depression, PTSD, substance use disorders, anxiety. etc These mental health issues continue to worsen when victims find themselves helpless in getting justice due to inefficient administrative mechanisms. In light of this, Megha Rana Ray and Sreeja Sengupta, fourth-year students of WBNUJS have started an initiative called HIMMAT. Drawn from Megha's personal experience as a survivor, having struggled against the college administration for more than 2 years, this initiative aims at helping many such survivors facing similar challenges.

We all know that fighting a case especially as a student is intimidating and scary, and often we lack the support as well. HIMMAT is an initiative to equip survivors of sexual harassment with the support and knowledge required to tackle institutional proceedings at Colleges. Their website contains the basic information for filing a complaint, rights of survivors, and much more! They are soon coming up with free legal consultancy through a network of lawyers, activists and experts.

Website: www.safecollegespace.com
Instagram: Teamhimmat
Twitter: Teamhimmat

19/12/2019

We are pleased to inform you that NUJS Mental Health Cell in collaboration with Weekend Lecture Series will be organizing a lecture by Ramani Kortman Bedi on 19th December 2019 i.e. today at 7 p.m.

Ms. Ramni Kortman-Bedi is an energy specialist and well-being expert. She is the Founder and Managing Director of Believe Energy. She completed her Masters in Marketing Management from Aston University and her Bachelor's in Management Sciences from The University of Manchester.

She is extremely passionate about helping children and young adults and has conducted multiple workshops, emphasizing not only their physical health but also their emotional well-being. In furtherance of the same, Believe Energy runs workshops for children which build their emotional well-being and resilience and educate everyone on how a child's emotional well-being affects their behavior, ability to learn, confidence, self-worth and overall happiness. Currently, Believe Energy runs two workshops, one for children and another for adult age groups. She also conducts workshops titled "I Am Important" which offers practical tools and techniques to deal with emotions independently thus building confidence, resilience and maintaining happiness.

It will be an insightful session. Looking forward to seeing y'all!!

10/10/2019

We're constantly holding back because of stigmas. Let's not do it at our cost. This mental health day, share your battles.
email your stories at mentalhealthcell@nujs.edu or DM us.

29/09/2019

As part of Mental Health Cell's initiative Chandrika Bothra and Harsh*ta Tripathi from the Class of 2022 recently conducted a survey on the state of mental health at NUJS. They received around 274 responses comprising of the undergraduate student (UG) community. The key highlights are as follows:

• More than 50% of the people surveyed think mental health issues are extremely common at NUJS.

• The two most common sources for mental health issues are academic and career-related pressure and loneliness.

• Anxiety, stress, depression and drugs and alcohol addiction were voted as the most common ways in which mental health issues are manifested at 12, LB Block.

• 62% of the respondents are unsure or completely unaware of how to deal with these mental health issues.

• Seeking professional help for mental health issues made a positive difference more than 50% of the respondents.

• ‘Fear of revealing their mental health issues’ was voted as the most common reason for not seeking professional help.

To read the complete findings in detail please visit the following page.

The firs-of-its-kind Survey in NUJS reveals the state of affairs with regards to mental health of students...

18/08/2019

Hello, everyone!

As a part of the Mental Health Initiative, we realized that there is a huge gap between how people perceive their own imperfections and how others see them. There is a common belief that revealing our shortcomings to others makes us weak or flawed, but when others see those vulnerabilities, they see something very different. This has been called “the beautiful mess effect.” When we think about our own flaws, they appear more concrete and clear. However, when we look at someone else’s vulnerabilities, we not only look at things from a wider perspective but also understand our own vulnerabilities better.

Inspired from a similar exhibit at Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, we organized our very own version of Monument for the Anxious and the Hopeful in the month of February 2019. At this monument, we asked people to reveal their deepest fears and wishes to create a catalog of anonymous confessions that we wouldn’t otherwise share publicly. In one column, we wrote down our biggest wish or hope while in the other, willingly exposed our weakness or flaw.

Candy Chang, the founder of this monument says, “While many of us can feel that we’re barely keeping it together, seeing someone’s private corner of your psyche reflected in somebody else’s handwriting on a wall can be incredibly reassuring. It’s a reminder of the humanity in the faces around us.”

Learn more about the power of revealing your vulnerabilities here:
1.https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/01/beautiful-mess-vulnerability/579892/
2. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-34832-002
3. https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en.

13/08/2019

Hello All!

We are delighted to start our page! The Mental Health Cell was set up last semester with the aim of improving the state of mental health on NUJS campus. Our plans for this academic year include establishing peer counseling and faculty counseling, conducting informative sessions for different batches, introducing a monthly newsletter, increasing awareness on campus using posters and other means, including mental health in college policies, and encouraging the setting up of similar committees across law schools in India via a pan-NLU initiative.

Q. What is mental illness?

While we might experience sudden bouts of anxiety or stress on a daily basis, it can not be categorized as mental illness. Mental illness is a health condition that affects performing simplest of tasks and gets in the way of thinking. There are numerous examples of mental illnesses but a few common ones would include depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and OCD. According to American Psychiatric Association, “Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses are associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities”.

Q. Who does it affect?

Mental illness affects everyone differently; what may be a trigger point for one person might not concern the other at all. It is an individual experience and an equal opportunity issue. Sometimes, we even go without realising that we might be actually facing a mental health issue and often try to ignore the symptoms, or worse, label them as bad mood.

Q. What are the signs and symptoms of mental illness?

The reasons, symptoms, and issues vary from person to person. Some signs may be mild and may only interfere in limited ways with daily life, whereas, others might be as serious as suicidal thoughts. A few common symptoms may include:
-feeling down for a while
-extreme swings in mood
-withdrawing from family, friends, or activities
-low energy or problems sleeping
-often feeling angry, hostile, or violent
-feeling paranoid, hearing voices, or having hallucinations
-often thinking about death or su***de.

Q. Why is it important to talk about this right now?

Often ignored and more often stigmatized, mental health goes unrecognized in a college like ours. Our aim is to create more awareness about mental health conditions and how common they are through the mental health initiative. This would not only help us identify issues being faced by us and our peers in an extremely stressful and competitive environment like ours but also help us address these issues in the future.

P.S. We do not possess the qualifications required to professionally counsel someone, and that is not even on our agenda. We would like to emphasize that we will not be acting as counselors, but only offering suggestions on the options available- for instance, a list of the professionals in town and elsewhere. Our aim is to spread awareness and create an environment on campus that allows people the space to talk about these issues without being stigmatized.

:)