Words carry more than their linguistic value. They carry social meaning and construct societal attitudes towards issues. A linguistic inquiry into mental health words, specifically in India with its great linguistic diversity of hundreds of languages and dialects, reveals that terminology can carry multiple cultural connotations and meaning values. These can either empower individuals or hinder them by triggering a social stigma that deters openness and disclosure about mental health issues.
When we talk about mental health in English, we are familiar with clinical terms such as depression, anxiety, trauma, etc. However, translating these terms into Indian languages is an evolving and quite a challenging activity. There are no direct or native terms to describe mental health issues in several Indian languages. When translators try to do so, the words often end up being awkward, contextually irrelevant, or heavily flavoured with cultural baggage. Thus, the everyday language is often the primary optic through which people view the mental health issues. If such language is stigmatised or evasive, the distortion of perception of mental health occurs before one even begins to talk about it.
The Problem with Everyday Labels
Across many Indian languages, the words that describe mental illness have been stigmatising or contemptuous. For instance, in Hindi, the common word to describe someone with severe mental illness is “pagal” or “paagalpan”. It is used to describe not only mental illness, but also to label quirky or unusual behaviour. In Tamil, “paittiyam” is often used in a mocking tone. In Bengali, “pagol” is often used lightly, almost as a term of jest in casual conversation.
These words are bandied about without any thought as to how they reduce complex mental health issues to a level of comedy and offend people living with mental health issues, reducing mental health to the level of a farce and “being mad” something to be laughed at and thus avoided.
The casual and often derogatory way that mental illness is discussed deters many from seeking help. Many who are concerned about their mental health are reluctant to speak openly about their difficulties because they fear being stigmatised or ridiculed.
Cultural Narratives of Strength and Silence
Indian languages give away a lot about what our culture perceives as ‘strong’ when it comes to emotional and psychological coping mechanisms. A classic one is in Hindi — “dil mazboot rakho” (take care of your heart, i.e., be strong mentally). Another lovely expression is there in Malayalam language — “manassu balam venam” — which essentially translates to: “You should be mentally strong”.
Resilience is seen as a positive trait, so these phrases attempt to shame anyone who is not ‘strong enough’ enough to cope. What they essentially do is normalize psychological issues while erasing the validity of displaying emotional pain.
When a child of the times shares their problems they are brushed aside as a matter of imagination. They are asked to overlook such problems as “yeh sab dimag ka waham hai” (it’s all in your head) or “itna sochna band karo” (stop overthinking). Our understanding and acknowledgement of mental health as a valid health concern is usually limited to the occurrence of temporary emotional highs and lows.
When Language Oversimplifies Mental Illness
Many more challenges also arise in the translation of psychological conditions into local dialects. When trying to tell a man in a rural Indian village that he is suffering from depression he often frowns and tries to comprehend the reason behind the diagnosis. He describes his condition as “udaasi” or “dukhi hona,” which translates to feeling sad, almost akin to sadness as we know it. Indeed feeling sad is quite a natural phenomenon but depression is far more complex as it is characterized by a large array of symptoms which hinder the ability to lead an ordinary life.
Anxiety is also sometimes labeled as “chinta” (worry) again missing the severity and physiological symptoms which are part of an anxiety disorder.
When mental health issues are viewed as no more serious than feelings of frustration, people dealing with real clinical issues such as a mental health disorder can feel that their issues are trivialised. The reduction of serious mental health issues into everyday emotional states can lead to the depreciation of actual serious clinical issues, which can negatively impact people that are experiencing a serious clinical issue. This depreciation leads to feelings of being dismissed and having the seriousness of their illness diminished, which is invalidating.
The Hidden Strength Within Indian Languages
Despite these challenges, Indian languages also possess many linguistic resources which can be used to discuss mental health issues. Many Indian languages have rich vocabulary emanating from ancient philosophy and culture.
Words derived from the Sanskrit – manas (mind), chitta (consciousness), and santulan (balance) – speak to an old tradition that recognizes the importance of mental balance. Emotive suffering, intrapsychic conflict and various forms of psychological resistance are also well documented in ancient Hindu literature and on other systems of Indian spirituality.
Just like, nowadays terms like ‘maanasika aarogya’ in Kannada or ‘maanasik swasthya’ in Hindi is translated as mental health and it is looked as a normal health rather than aberration.
This vocabulary shows that the Indian tradition of psychology was not derogatory but needed some reinterpretation for present day psychological vocabulary.
The Language Gap in Mental Health Awareness
A major concern in India, in terms of mental health awareness, is that many conditions do not have common names. For instance, the common man may not know that being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, panic disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder means what. Bipolar disorder for instance is known as manic depression in the common parlance and that’s where the ignorance begins.
Because of this, people often talk about their experiences in terms of metaphor or bodily description. For example, someone having a panic attack may say they feel like their breath is “stuck”, or that their heart “jumps” or that they feel a sense of impending doom.
These words describe a state of mind that is not healthy. Although the phrases are often used to describe uncomfortable feelings, they do not necessarily mean that there is a mental illness. Without an understanding of the specialized language used to describe mental illnesses, it is not always easy to recognize when someone has a mental health issue.
Rewriting the Stigma Dictionary
In India, we need to change the way we talk about mental health, which requires a change in both language and culture. This change will come from the media, the education system and from conversations happening across communities.
Movies, TV serials and social media content in local languages made with proper vocabulary related to mental health and disorders has been bringing about awareness and making the community more accepting towards such issues. Using appropriate names for the disorders and therapies instead of using derogatory words is also making the community look at such topics in a more positive light.
In Pakistan, in addition to training specialists in psychiatric care to apply Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, the promotion of discussion of mental health in the vernacular languages of the area is also necessary. Many aspects of mental health are difficult to articulate to strangers in professional environments and conversing about them in one’s own language always feels more natural than explaining concepts in ‘psychology terminology’.
Words That Heal
Language is a huge determinant in whether or not we stigmatise something. In the context of mental health, our words have real life consequences – they can either reduce suffering or dismiss it. Our language and the way we frame something, can be the difference between weakness vs. being unwell.
Changing the vocabulary around mental health is perhaps one of the first steps towards helping Indian society accept the reality of mental illnesses. By renaming what has always been considered taboo, the ultimate aim is to bring mental health into the open, reducing stigma by a few degrees.
Debunking mental health myths starts with rewriting the “stigma dictionary”—shame and shamefaced words traded for dignity, misconceptions for knowledge and silence for discussion. In a country where words are imbued with cultural, social and historical meaning, shaping the vocabulary about mental health could change the nation for good.
