Creating Mental Health & Wellbeing – Mental Health Experts with Sadhguru

Prof Bamrah: I'm so pleased we're talking to you about mental health, which is often the poor cousin of anything that is physical. Sadhguru, you've talked about this so much. Sadhguru: Human experience is essentially caused from within – all human experience. Pain and pleasure, joy and misery, anxiety and ecstasy, all caused from within. So, are you in charge to cause what you want? Are you in a place where you can cause what you want? External things can be stimuli, but it is the way we respond which causes the experience. Dr. James: And I think a lot of people would like to start out on that journey of finding that inner peace and joy, what would be your advice as to how to start out on that journey? Sadhguru: The most important thing is we gave you a super, super, super computer, but most people don't bother to read the user's manual. Suppose you eat a piece of bread, within four-five hours’ time, it is become human body. Bread is a simple composition. That simple thing becomes such a sophisticated thing here (Gestures). But that dimension of intelligence exists within us and that is not thought process. Dr. Ananta : What insights can you offer us about how young people can regain a sense of connection to life and hope and aspiration? Sadhguru: From Homer, you come to one hundred and forty characters of literature. Prof Swaran: So, Sadhguru, what in your view is the fundamental cause of mental disorders? Sadhguru: See, one thing is the way we eat; it's a very big part of mental illness. You called that biryani and you ate it; now the damage is big because these two things will not go together. See in another ten years, you will find medical evidence for this. You will find because we know this is how it works. Prof Bamrah: So, Okay, so, it's lovely to see you again, Sadhguru. So, hopefully we will have the pleasure of meeting you in person one day, and a very warm welcome to all our guests, and viewers, at a time when many of us are experiencing physical and mental strain from COVID-19. So firstly, a self-introduction if I may. I know we've met before, but I'll give a self-brief, self-introduction. I'm Prof JS Bamrah. I'm Senior UK psychiatrist, chair of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. I'm a researcher, writer and lecturer. I am born in Tanzania. I did my Medicine at Patiala Medical College in India, and now Manchester has been my home for nearly forty years. Now, Sadhguru I am going to make the analogy today of a ship. So, I'm the captain of the ship. It's called the HMS Sadhguru. On board, we have some… Sadhguru: Hey, don't… don't crash it, hmm! (Laughs) Prof Bamrah: No, this is not the time. This is HMS Sadhguru, which is going sailing. That's why we're all on board with you. So, on board of course, we have yourself, Sadhguru, we have the crew Isha Foundation, and in our deluxe cabins, we have Dr. Adrian James, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Prof Swaran Preet Singh, he's an academic psychiatrist and Dr. Ananta Dave who is child and adolescent psychiatrist. Sadhguru: Namaskaram. Dr. Dave: Namaskaram, Sadhguru. Prof Bamrah: I will give you a proper introduction to them afterwards. But Sadhguru, as I was saying, you'll be pleased to know that no turbulence or storms are expected. expected. It's going to be plain sailing, the weather's going to be absolutely fine. So, let me put a context to our discourse today, and I'm so pleased we're talking to you about mental health, which is often the poor cousin of anything that is physical. Many of us won't be aware from the conversation… conversations you have had about COVID-19. and its impact on physical health, the brain and the mind. And everyone will appreciate that the most powerful organ in our body is not the heart, the liver, or the brain. In fact, in today's virtual world, it is our thought because our thoughts can make us sink, it can make us fly, it can make any organ in the body malfunction. Why does one patient with cancer do better than another patient with the same cancer, why does one patient with a heart attack fare better than another patient with a heart attack? And I wanted to give you a personal illustration of an experience I had Sadhguru and high esteem panellists. So, when I was an intern at Patiala Medical College, I remember a twenty-one-year-old woman presenting to the surgical department with breathlessness. After investigating her, the surgeons found nothing wrong with her. She was referred to the Department of Medicine, where she saw a very renowned physician, Prof Jolly, with whom I was interning at that time, and he decided that the cause of breathlessness was psychiatric. Well, I was a young intern, I was a bit offended. I said, "Well, what this poor girl has presented with severe distress, she's breathless, and you're going to label her as mad," because even I was ignorant as an intern. And she did see the… She saw another renowned person, Prof Gurmeet Singh, who was a renowned International psychiatrist, and he determined that the cause of breathlessness was indeed psychiatric. She was… she had suffered long term sexual abuse at the hand of a close relative. And so, this physical illness was a manifestation of a hidden mental anguish. And so, the mind is a corridor of thoughts, behaviors and actions that you can imagine. Sadhguru you've talked about this so much. In relation to the impact of COVID on mental health, I've certainly seen an increase in my patients with depression, anxiety, insomnia, alcohol abuse, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, suicidal thoughts as well. There's been quite a major increase in all of these, but this, as you know, is not a local phenomenon. It's a global phenomenon. In one Canadian study that I saw of 46,000 subjects, normal population, twenty-four percent reported that their condition had become poor or fair after COVID. Fifty-two percent said their mental health has declined since physical distancing began because as you know, physical distance unfortunately, has also meant psychological distancing for many patients, many people. Eighty-eight percent indicated they experienced a symptom of anxiety in the previous two weeks, so a whopping nearly ninety percent had anxiety in the previous two weeks during COVID. Sixty-four percent of young people, Ananta you'd be interested to hear this, of youth aged fifteen to twenty-four, reported a decline in mental health. And you know, the thing about this is that, there are no blood tests to determine mental health. There is a blood test to determine the virus, antibodies and all of that, and how immune you are… you are or we are. There is no litmus test for mental health problems. And there is no vaccination that will stop mental illness, which is why seminars like this, and what you all have done and Sadhguru you've done internationally, why they are very important to address some of these issues. So, now folks HMS Sadhguru is fully board