T.W. Mention of Suicidal Thoughts
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
– William James.
Thanks to his dad, 23-year-old Arihant Chopra has always been an advocate of helping others in any form or manner. He learned from his father about the importance of helping those in need via social service as his dad was associated with many such organizations in Kolkata.
Arihant has always lived in a lively environment with a large joint family, with whom he is constantly in touch even after moving out with his parents. Th`y have always been very candid and transparent with each other. He joined BTech but he had doubts of his capability regarding his academic advancements.
“Hrithik Roshan was my idol, and I would try to copy him to make my body move well to the beat.”
Arihant has always been close to his parents. He has always been interested in sports, dancing and street photography. Whenever he sees a moment he feels he needs to frame, he captures them immediately on his phone.
“I felt very low, like there was no one. It was like I was sitting alone for the first time in my life.”
In his 2nd year in college, he started to struggle due to personal reasons and getting backlogs in his papers. On top of that, in January of 2019, he learned about his parents being asked to leave home where his grandparents stayed. They had nowhere to stay and that added more to his stress.
Arihant could not express the toll the separation of his parents from the family was taking on him. His friends suggested counseling but he had a financial crunch as he did not want to reveal his struggles to his parents but also did not wish to lie to them either.
Arihant could not bring himself to open up to his friends or cousins. This continued on into 2021. He tried building a supportive environment and connecting to people but the number of issues kept on increasing.
Things started falling into place in 2021 on the personal and professional front. In May, Arihant landed an opportunity for an internship at Infracloud Technologies. In August of 2021, he got converted into a full time employee. He had built a good network of friends who listened to him when he shared his feelings.
“I had a very good friend circle whom I could trust blindly and vice versa.”
After he started working, he had trouble with time management and identifying with the roles. His productivity had decreased, he had started getting thoughts of giving up and instances of overthinking were leading to suicidal ideation. He also started withdrawing from people and social media platforms, in a way isolating himself from the world.
“I cut people out and I did not feel like I was me at the time. I was very vulnerable.”
Arihant’s parents expected him to be in a position and organisation where he received high pay and this added extra pressure on his already existing inner turmoil. This made him lose focus in his professional life too. He knew things would get better but immediate action was needed if he did not want the issues to take a deep root inside him.
“YourDOST came exactly at the right time when I needed it. I did not think twice and went ahead with it to get away from my stress.”
His organisation had YourDOST as their mental well-being partner. He decided to utilise this opportunity to get the help he felt he needed. Arihant got connected to an Expert Counselor Ms. Nimisha Katare and had chat sessions. She made him feel comfortable and listened to the details of the issues that were worrying him.
“My counselor listened to me well. She helped me open up completely and I could explain things in detail.”
The counselor suggested he take a session with a clinical psychologist, having one session per week. He later got connected to the counselor on call who let him speak his heart out without jumping to conclusions.
Arihant felt extremely relieved to have found someone who listened to him actively which lightened the burdens on his mind. His suicidal thoughts and negative thought process ceased. He saw that this increased his productivity and it felt like he was getting a fresh start.
“YourDOST has been an amazing experience. It helped me channel my thoughts and bring positivity. ”
Summarising his experience with YourDOST, Arihant is proud to call it a ‘flourishing’ one, saying goodbye to his stress! Arihant rated himself with 4.3 when asked about his improvement journey.
Being a great advocate of social service and also regarding the importance of mental health, he believes people should seek help when they need it. If they are not comfortable opening up to someone then he tries to make them feel comfortable and nourish them so that they reach out.
He expressed his appreciation to the higher-ups and the management of Infracloud Technologies for providing such a supportive environment. He expressed his gratitude for helping him be his true candid self. He is getting to learn a lot of things and develop himself.
Having the culture of the organisation align with his expectations made Arihant feel like he is working at his dream company.
And surely, all of us at YourDOST second this! For being the true mental health warrior that he is, we wish Arihant the best of luck!
Arihant’s Warrior Tips:
1. Extrovert, introvert, ambivert doesn’t make sense as one can be any of them depending on the person they are comfortable with.
2. If one can open up well, they should definitely go for counseling.
3. If one is provided with an opportunity to get help, then they should definitely go ahead with it.
4. No two people are the same which means their experiences will differ too. The important fact is that one should accept these differences.
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