The government needs to keep its fingers on the spiritual pulse of the people. It is easy to think that mental health issues don't concern us. But how can we assume that when, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 100 million people have suffered some mental problem or the other at some point in their lives?

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Serious mental health problems are more common than we think. More than 16 million people are mentally or intellectually challenged in the country. The seriousness of the matter can be gauged from the fact that the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council has issued a draft law on mental health to solicit public opinion.

Depression, in most cases, is still misunderstood and its consequences are often hidden. It is either ignored or seen as a passing phase in person's life, but the reality is that the number of people with neurotic disorder is on the rise. Society, especially health authorities, can no longer ignore this.

The advance of medical science has helped cure or check many diseases, but depression as a medical condition is becoming more rampant. A society in which a growing number of people are in a poor mental state cannot be healthy.

There is reason to think that depression is linked to the modern way of life, which entails stress and hypertension. The rapid pace of the country's economic progress has encouraged almost everyone to change gear and drive in the fast lane of life. Everyone has his or her goal to achieve. While adults run after material gains, children follow heavy curricula to get high scores and enter good high schools and universities.

Stress is main cause of poor health and mental problems. Many people spend their day rushing from one stress-filled activity to another. Even the smallest mistake or let-up can frustrate them and throw them into fits of anger. The nature of modern life does not lend itself easily to a search for inner peace.

Given the spate of tragedies involving mentally or physically challenged people in recent years, health organizations should offer healthy lifestyle guidelines to avoid stress as much as possible. That will prevent many people from going into depression.

But instead of helping people, some law-enforcement officials have found a convenient way to not respond to some emergency situations. They just label the people who file complaints against certain difficult problems as mentally challenged and wash their hands of the matter. This should stop.

Researchers have found that regular physical exercise works like magic for many people suffering depression or anxiety disorders. This medicine costs nothing and has no side effects.

(China Daily 06/20/2011 page8)