Mental Health Issues

Mental health issues are growing problems in today’s busy, complex, individualised, and stigmatised societies all over the world. In the pursuit of wealth, prosperity, career, fame, and ‘show-off’, people are becoming more and more isolated from their families, relatives, and other close human connections, due to which they are directly or indirectly suffering mental health problems. 

Separation from realities, not accepting realities, not dealing with realities, and not facing the realities have taken a heavy toll on human minds and lives. Mental health problems have not left anyone, irrespective of any profession. People who are involved in the justice system are also deeply afflicted by mental health issues.

In the book ‘Well-being in the legal profession: Altruism, justice, and legal reform’ published in 2025 by Routledge, the writer digs out the mental health problems faced by people involved in legal professions, mainly lawyers and judges. He argues that ‘lawyers’ and judges’ egocentrism, depression, anxiety, distress, self-absorption, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse’ have ‘seriously damaged the civil and criminal legal system’. 

One of the most important factors to be good at any profession is to have sound mental health. Only a mentally healthy professional can serve the people and societies well.  When a person is himself/herself is suffering from poor mental health, their decisions have grave impacts on the people, societies, nations, and even the whole world (if they happen to be people of political power). 

Take, for example, Hitler and other ‘mentally-ill’ leaders who have killed thousands of people. Mentally ill teachers and professors at schools and universities affect the future of students. Doctors with poor mental health affect the lives of patients. There are such thousands of instances of mentally unhealthy people that affected, have affected, and affect the different fabrics of societies, communities and nations.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. To elaborate, just because a person is not suffering from any disease or does not have physical maladies, they cannot be considered healthy unless they have sound mental and social health. 

In other words, how a person deals with issues related to themselves and others internally i.e. mentally and how they deal with people in the society they live in and the issues pertaining to it matter so much. The costs of poor mental health and absence of social well-being are so high; they can even be fatal. That is why mental health issues should be addressed with high importance. As a matter of fact, it falls under human rights to have sound mental health. 

The duo writers of the book ‘International Human Rights Law: A Treatise’ (2025), Ludovic Hennebel and Héléne Tigroudja of Aix-Marseille University highlight that ‘this right to health is fundamental to the enjoyment of other rights and freedoms. This includes crucial rights such as the right to life and the right to personal dignity’. To simplify this, ill mental health becomes obstruction to enjoy other rights and freedoms.

Despite this, due to most societies’ negative views on people who suffer from mental health issues and stigmas associated prevent sufferers from seeking mental wellbeing, the number of people suffering from mental health seems to be growing day by day in today’s ‘war-torn’ and narcissistic world.