Our vanishing Hindus

[Solomon2]

...terrorists like the Taliban and Al Qaeda are the best thing that happened for you. Don't try to deny it. They kill our countrymen and have in many ways diverted attention from Israeli and American brutalities

What Is Paranoid Schizophrenia?

Paranoid schizophrenia, or schizophrenia with paranoia as doctors now call it, is the most common example of this mental illness.

Schizophrenia is a kind of psychosis; your mind doesn't agree with reality. It affects how you think and behave. This can show up in different ways and at different times, even in the same person. The illness usually starts in late adolescence or young adulthood.

People with paranoid delusions are unreasonably suspicious of others. This can make it hard for them to hold a job, run errands, have friendships, and even go to the doctor.

Although it's a lifelong illness, you can take medicines and find help to get rid of symptoms or make them easier to live with.

Paranoid Symptoms
Delusions are beliefs that seem real and true to you, even when there's strong evidence they aren't. Paranoid delusions, also called delusions of persecution, are rooted in fear and anxiety. They might make you feel like:

• 
  
  
  • A co-worker is trying to hurt you, like poison your food.
  • Your spouse or partner is cheating on you.
  • The government is spying on you.
  • People in your neighborhood are plotting to harass you.

These beliefs can make trouble in your relationships. And if you think that strangers are going to hurt you, you may feel like not going outside or not interacting with other people.

People with schizophrenia aren't usually violent, but sometimes paranoid delusions can make them feel threatened and angry about it.

Medication

Your doctor may prescribe an antipsychotic drug to make the delusions go away. It could be pills, a liquid, or shots. It can take a few weeks for these drugs to work fully, but you could start feeling a little calmer quickly. You might need to try more than one to find amedication or combination that's right for you.

Even when you feel better, keep taking your medicine. If you stop, your delusions will probably come back. Avoid using marijuana, or nicotine,cocaine, or other stimulants. They can keep antipsychotic drugs from working well. They can also cause paranoia or make it worse.

You might have to take different kinds of drugs for other symptoms, too.

Hospitalization
There might be times when your paranoid delusions or other symptoms are so severe that you have to go to the hospital. You'll be cared for so you and your loved ones stay safe.

If you recognize that you're having trouble, you can agree to be admitted voluntarily. But if you don't think you need help when you really do, a doctor or other mental health professional may be legally allowed to admit you involuntarily.

 

[khanz]

Hindus have been treated badly in pakistan but it's that stupid blasphemy law and isolated incidents and it's something that is slowly being rectified as the populations becomes more literate and connected with the rest of the world.Bangladesh always had the vast majority of hindus in pre-71 pakistan and this was the main reason for the huge decline not because we forcefully converted them or killed them all as indians would have us believe there is over 200 million pakistanis in the world now and currently around 4+ million hindus living in pakistan the vast majority of country has no problem with them .
Actually pakistani hindus have recently started increasing in population due to high birth rate the pakistani census often undercounts minorities for political reasons but we will grow to have the 4th largest hindu population by 2050 nearly 6 million and recently declared Holi as a holiday I hope things continue to go this way .

 

[Levina]

But Pakistan didnt have an influx of Muslims from India in a way their whole population didnt go down? Even to this day, I do not find any Muslim migrating to Pakistan finding it attractive. Its only the other way around.

Anyway I believe India should open the gates for minorities who wish to settle in my Bharatham.

True that.

 

[Solomon2]

...Your support to all kinds of fundamentalists be it Muslim mullahs or Jewish fanatics is well known. There is no point discussing this with a person so delusional -

A little more to help you here, hZ:

Matters of the mind
OCT 12, 2014
Prof Syed Haroon Ahmed has been involved in treating patients of mental illness for decades. Here he shares his insights into the scope of the mental health problem in Pakistan

By Shazia Hasan

What are the biggest and most serious mental disorders?

Fluctuating from high to low, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are two flagship mental disorders in the world today.

Around 10 per cent of the population of any developing country including Pakistan suffers either from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder where people suffer from false beliefs or delusions that cannot be corrected by logic, and exhibit symptoms of hyperactivity.

There can be a disturbance in their way of thinking. For instance, they think that so and so is after them or after their money. There can be a disturbance in their emotions or incongruous emotions where they have no control and are either laughing away or talking to themselves, which is also known as non-social speech. Sometimes they can be suffering from hallucinations and false perceptions where they visualise something or someone that others around them can’t see. All these come under schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

What follows the two big mental disorders mentioned?

Well, the rest include depression which afflicts twice as many women as men. Then there is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) where people keep washing their hands or repeating an activity to the point of obsession. Additionally there are widespread cases of anxiety and so on.

These disorders are not only extremely common but are also the ones most likely to be ignored as they largely pose a problem for the patient and not society at large.

If they are so common then why do they go untreated for so long?

All these problems are treatable provided the patient receives help in time. But as is normally seen, when the patient’s family notices any behavioural changes in him or her they ignore them at first or think they will pass. In the cases of the acutely disturbed, the realisation comes more quickly when they see the patient’s distrust in everyone around them or when patients become physically violent. There are also cases where patients refuse to believe their parents are in fact their parents, which is called capgras syndrome.

However, for minor illness where patients are not so hostile, it may take up to one to one-and-a-half years for the family to even realise that something is wrong. Even when they do realise this they may not seek treatment immediately.

First comes the denial; they say their son or daughter is all right or that someone has cast a spell on him / her or that he / she is possessed. They drag them to faith-healers, which wastes more time. In fact, faith-healers ruin the case.

Then in many cases, after they realise that he or she is not possessed after all, they just leave them to their own devices. While when they believed that he or she was possessed, everyone was around him / her, but when the relatives realise that isn’t the case, that’s when they desert him / her.

Of course there always are exceptions. Sometimes someone in the family steps forth to take care of the disturbed person, and sometimes people also look into committing patients to a facility.

How many mental hospitals or facilities are there in Pakistan?

Not many. There are only 3,000 beds here in the shape of four mental hospitals — in Hyderabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Mansehra. Another 3,000 beds are in private practice, which include small hospitals and teaching hospitals like Civil Hospital or the Aga Khan. So since the hospitals are few, it is always better to take care and rehabilitate them at home. Or at least that’s what ends up happening.

So if a mentally ill person is being rehabilitated at home, what should the caregivers be mindful of?

It is not right to find out about someone’s diagnosis and leave him or her alone to fend for themselves. In fact, two attitudes are not good when dealing with such a person. First, he or she should not be isolated and second, one should not become overprotective. Suppose there is a very caring family member who makes the patient too dependent, then you now have a mentally unwell individual who is also effectively an invalid on your hands. It is better to recognise the problem early and seek treatment early to make the person a productive member of society.

Can you tell us what kind of mental disorders were common earlier, or was it the same as today?

Earlier, hysteria was seen as the most common mental disorder. Sigmund Freud in the 18th century associated hysteria with the uterus so he said that it was a very common problem amongst girls.

These days we say if some girl suffers from hysteria, get her married. But I say no, don’t do that please because then the family she marries into complain and say they’ve been deceived and that will make the situation worse for all concerned. Marriage, really, is no treatment for hysteria.

Of course hysteria has a new name — conversion disorder.

But now the most common mental disorder is depression, which used to be around 3-5pc in incidence but has risen dramatically these days. Some of the reasons are that there is now more awareness and far more social stressors. Everyday issues such as no electricity/water and the absence of implementation of laws gives way to frustration. Now 20pc of the population suffers from depression. And females suffer more from depression than men.

So can we say that depression is largely stress-related?

Well, different people deal with stress differently. Some get into malingering and some suffer from hysteria. While malingering they are using a symptom like a headache or tummy ache to avoid a painful situation. So it is a conscious thing which they are doing.

But hysteria is in the subconscious where the anxiety grows so much that it manifests itself in symptoms like blindness, fainting fits, loss of voice, etc.

When the stress level grows and continues, the previously mentally-ill can even have a relapse or a psychosomatic disorder like headache, stomach-ache, even heart attack or cancer; continued stress can cause physical conditions. Too much stress also sees some to opt out and go into depression. Others resort to smoking, drinking, doing drugs, etc to manage anxiety. This is almost always counterproductive.

In the modern day does electroshock therapy still have a place in the treatment of mental disorders?

Shock therapy or electro convulsive therapy (ECT) started being used around 1935, when at a mental asylum in Europe some severely schizophrenic patients who also happened to suffer from epilepsy would noticeably calm down for a few days after suffering from an epileptic fit.

It was then discovered that giving patients electric shocks brings on similar epileptic fits and helps calm them. But yes, it is no longer used as much as it used to be. Of all the patients I get, I only send one or two for ECT in a year, and only when it is a matter of life and death, as with patients who are so depressed that they become suicidal.

Do mental illnesses run in families?

The major illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder by and large are genetic, while others are environmental. So you may say that some are natural while the others, like anxiety, are nurtured. Also sometimes someone has grown up in a very healthy environment and his or her symptoms don’t show but they are nevertheless carriers. Sometimes the majority of a family is fine but some grandmother had a problem, which a grandchild inherits.

Why do people say that there is a thin line between genius and madness?

They say this because there is, in fact, a thin line separating a genius from a disturbed person. Look at it this way, a genius won’t do anything that a normal person would. They swim against the tide, think out of the box, etc.

For instance, there is the creative genius, like the artist Sadequain, who would paint obsessively. I have seen him paint. He just went on and on without taking any rest. He would be sick, would be suffering from a tooth abscess and all but would not stop. There are so many writers and painters like that.

Did you know Ted Turner, who started CNN suffers, from bipolar disorder and takes lithium salt to keep it under control?

What in your view is the definition of a completely sane and normal person?

Someone who can take care of oneself, one’s family and respect the law.

 

[prashantazazel]

Let all the persecuted groups in. If there was am anti conversion law in place, I would even welcome all faiths.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

Majority of the Hindu population during the 1950's and the 60's lived in East Pakistan, the vanishing Hindus is nothing more than a vanishing myth.

Yes. During the 50s and 60s. From 47 to 50, West Pakistani Hindus left for India.

What happened here was a reaction towhat was happening in Jammu,Kashmir and Punjab the situation in all the districts deteriated after refugees started pouring in

If you try to find out the reasons and justifications you will have to go on and on and on. There is no end and it will also go right back to ibn Qasim.

That's not the point. After the call for Direct action and even before that... also check the evacuation trains...the first ones were to leave Lahore. Trains from Amritsar and Delhi followed later.

Even then, I am not blaming anyone. That is past and living on why they did it is ... not much of my problem. We can learn so that it does not happen again. But what happened, happened. That's all.

Let all the persecuted groups in. If there was am anti conversion law in place, I would even welcome all faiths.

Indeed. As the parent nation, we can't shirk the responsibility.

 

[Scharfschütze]

tehnically hindu is not a religion but name of a person living in hindustan...

 

[khanmubashir]

Pakistan conducted her first national census in 1951, according to which 22% of the population was hindu. According to the same record, out of 22%, 20% were in east Pakistan while only 2% in west Pakistan. When Pakistan's population split in 1971, so did the hindu population, leaving only 2% in Pakistan. Currently hindu population in Pakistan is according to some between 1.6% and 1.8%. This 0.2% decline in 68 years is due the muslim migration from Indian occupied kashmir, Xinjang, iran (after the collapse of shah) and above all Afghanistan. Since the independence, India has seen much greater decline of hinduism than Pakistan and former West Pakistan

 

[zip]

Pakistan conducted her first national census in 1951, according to which 22% of the population was hindu. According to the same record, out of 22%, 20% were in east Pakistan while only 2% in west Pakistan. When Pakistan's population split in 1971, so did the hindu population, leaving only 2% in Pakistan. Currently hindu population in Pakistan is according to some between 1.6% and 1.8%. This 0.2% decline in 68 years is due the muslim migration from Indian occupied kashmir, Xinjang, iran (after the collapse of shah) and above all Afghanistan. Since the independence, India has seen much greater decline of hinduism than Pakistan and former West Pakistan

If Bangladesh Hindu Population has to raise overall Population of then United Pakistan by 20% it should have almost 50%of Hindu Population.. Which is not true

 

[third eye]

Hindus are backward people, they will diminish as forward looking ideologies and religions take over. Hindus shouldnt feel victim. Its a natural process. On the other hand if Hindus turn violent to reciprocate, its not natural.

Racist remark .. reported.

 

[wadi79]

The justifications come thick and fast for Pakistani behaviour with people of other faiths - what about, what about, what about etc. Now that they are done with Hindus and Sikhs, they moved on to Christians, then to Shias and the cycle continues. In this case, I think the whole society is complicit - only a handful of people may actually go out and kill Hindus/Christians/Ahmadiyas/Shias/Kalash, but the society at large serves as an enabler, by tolerating and promoting such hate. It is this ideology of hatred that enabled the killer in Orlando and others like him.

However, if a Western society imposes even some light restrictions on immigrant Muslims, the screams of Islamophobia go sky high.