I was born in India, in a very humble, middle class joint family of doctors who knew nothing beyond the noble profession of medicine, and you could totally imagine this, given the fact that there were very few white collared jobs present in India during 1980s. So as an obedient and bright daughter, I finished my bachelors in medicine & surgery (MBBS), but by that time the bug of Psychology, mental health and complexities and mysteries of human mind had bitten me hard! So I worked for some time as a resident doctor in Psychiatry, where I realized that mental health stigma is rampant and awareness is scarce. I was always moved by the plight of these patients and their families, not just by the disease itself but by the prejudices and discrimination against them in the society. Therefore to do something about this, I made up my mind to pursue MD Psychiatry as that was the only way I was aware of, at that time to make me eligible to help those who are affected. To accomplish this goal, I started preparing for US medical licensing exams (as was usually done by most of the doctors in India at that time). I came to the US in 2009 to take my clinical skills exam and met my husband in the process, we got married in 2010 and I finally settled here with him. Simultaneously I was trying to create my professional niche in the US, and in that process I was introduced to the fascinating field of Psychiatric genetics research and realized that there is much more to Psychiatry than just the one on one patient encounter. While I was still working as a Research Associate in a renowned University in the US, I applied for Masters in Public health, which opened doors for me to connect to the community and pursue my goal of spreading mental health awareness and reduce stigma. After completing the Masters program I started working as a Mental health epidemiologist in a local health department and have been working there for 7 years now. During the span of these 7 years, I have had the privilege of working on some very interesting substance use and mental illness prevention programs. We have educated general public as well as primary care providers about the detrimental effects of opioids, benefits of alternative pain management techniques, and Medication assisted treatment, connected the affected individuals to care and resources; distributed Naloxone to the first responders and general public, educated them about how & when to use it; educated faith leaders about the basics of mental illness and how to address mental health issues in their respective congregations as well as connected them to the local mental health providers and resources; formed a local overdose fatality review team to dig deeper into the overdose related deaths in the community and brainstorm solutions to prevent them in future as well as bring about policy changes if required. Through evaluating and managing projects like these, I am making a meaningful contribution towards spreading science and evidence-based knowledge about mental health, substance use and reducing the stigma. Although my journey just doesn’t stop here, I want to reach more people, a wider community so that I can continue raising mental health awareness through my work which fosters creativity, facts & pure science. I am also pursuing PhD in epidemiology and hope to lead the mental health awareness movement someday! This is my story so far, and my idea to share my story is not to boast about myself or my acievements, but to spread the message that if you have a bigger mission in mind, you reach your goal sooner or later via plan A, B, C, X, Y,or Z, litterally doesn't matter! More important is to enjoy the path and the journey you have chosen to reach the goal, as on that very path you will find zillions of amazing moments of joy, accomplishment and pride. You just have to 'be present' to celebrate them. No doubt, you will have your share of challenges, difficulties, tears, dissapointments and failures, which I did as well, but the beauty of them all is that they teach you how to be more resilient, how to bounce back with even more determination and how to put your best foot forward in the journey. There is no such thing as 'I have reached where I wanted to in life' but there is always 'I have enjoyed and am enjoying the journey I embarked upon to reach the goal'. In fact there is no 'one goal' that you want to reach in life, but multiple goals that you keep achieving (or sometimes missing) during your journey towards the larger mission.
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