Once a Medical Failure, Now a Mental Health Specialist
Late in 90’s, doctors declare a girl as a ‘Medical failure’ and says she is incapable of doing anything. Years later, she becomes a doctor and starts a movement called “THE GLOBAL WOMEN’S RECOVERY MOVEMENT’ for addressing the mental health issues of the woman. What an Irony! Once a medical failure and now a doctor. We are talking about Dr. Lavanya Seshasayee, a women mental health specialist, who once was schizophrenic.
The initial struggle
Born in a traditional South Indian Brahmin family that laid down specific and separate codes of conduct for women and men, she struggled to learn according to her interest and pursue her dreams. She kept on facing mental tortures from several corners of her family when she tried to voice her opinions. Dr.Lavanya was unable to concentrate on studies due to such mental tortures. For two years during graduation, she was unable to study. She started talking incoherently, sometimes without even being aware of it and thus became the laughing stock of all the classmates. However, there were other times when she performed excellent qualitative as well as quantitative analysis. When she finally failed in a crucial examination she sought medical help and the doctors had declared her a ‘medical failure’ and said she was incapable of doing anything.
But, she had a passion. She had the willpower. Through her effort, she proved that everything is possible for her too. Her passion for the subject psychology was there in her from the time she was doing her bachelors in Journalism, English literature and Women’s Studies. She cleared her graduate studies with a silver medal even when she was undergoing her journey through Schizophrenia. She says that she came up with a support system called “FSA- Feminist Self Advocacy” during her lucid moments between her episodes of Psychosis. FSA is now named “WSEA – Women’s Self Empowerment and Advocacy”. When nobody trusted her ability to learn, she completed her Ph.D. in Women’s Mental Health with the lone support of her mother. During the research period, she was one of the 9 people who was completely funded to attend the Global Mental Health Summit held in 2009 in Athens, Greece by the World Psychiatric Association.
She was also invited to draft a paper by Indian Government in 2009 to rewrite laws for mentally ill. She along with other experts advocated various changes to be made in Mental Health Act of 1987. She tried to make the laws more in consonance with UNCRPD– United Nations Convention For Rights Of People With Disabilities, which attributes social, political, cultural, economic and legal barriers rather than biomedical reasons to disability.
The Motivation
It was when she met Dr. Bhargavi Davar, a strong mental health activist and founder of the Bapu Trust for Research on Mind and Discourse that she started to believe that she is not a total failure. Dr.Davar is a strong mental health activist and founder of the Bapu Trust for Research on Mind and Discourse, who promotes creative and non-psychiatric approaches to treat mental illness. Dr. Lavanya recalls Dr.Davar’s words to her. “The mental health system drugs consumers for hearing voices, but who will drug the mental health system for failing to hear the voices of consumers?” These words have motivated Dr.Lavanya and she owes her recovery to Dr.Davar, whom she considers as her Guru.
The Achievements
Today, she is one of the successful self-advocate for mental health promotion. She is a part of the ‘VOICES’ PROJECT instituted by the National University of Ireland-Galway [NUIG]. She wrote a chapter “The Phoenix Rises” sharing her story pertaining to the deprivation of full legal capacity, how it affected her and changes to be made in legal laws. NUIG plans to release it as a book with stories of various other distinguished disability advocates. She gives individual counseling as well and looks ahead to open a college for mental health and train more self-advocates to share their stories which she believes will create a snowballing effect in the recovery of clients. As mentioned earlier, she is the founder of THE GLOBAL WOMEN’S RECOVERY MOVEMENT (GWRM), which was started in 2017 for addressing the mental health issues of women. Here, the psychiatrists are trained to implement a ‘capabilities informed approach’ and caregivers are trained to relearn communication with their clients in an empathetic way.
In a society where mental health and the considerations is still a taboo, Dr.Lavanya is creating a change. She is a living example which proves that a disability doesn’t mean that there is no capacity. Once she was a patient and now she is a mental health expert. If there is a will, nothing is impossible!!
Source: 1.https://feminisminindia.com/2018/05/10/interview-dr-lavanya-seshasayee/
2.https://indiansnews.com/inspiring-indians/amazing-story-dr-lavanya-seshasayee-medical-failure-became-doctor/