Trauma Nation: India's neglected mental health challenge needs addressing

As anxiety, depression, physical illnesses and addiction become global problems, this book studies their impact with an Indian lens

Trauma Nation: Fighting India’s Silent Epidemic

by Nishtha Lamba, PhD

Published by Aleph

217 pages 

₹799

 

One in seven Indians lives with a mental health condition, yet 83 per cent receive no treatment, making it one of the widest mental health care gaps in the world. Trauma has been linked to a range of chronic and autoimmune conditions, including high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. Yet it still receives far too little systemic attention.

 

Trauma is often understood as a limited, individual experience. Mental health researcher and professor Nishtha Lamba argues that it is, in fact, a collective and a much broader concern. In  Trauma Nation,  she describes it as a silent epidemic, “hidden in plain sight.”

 

The book builds an overarching narrative through several personal accounts of women and men who have experienced long-lasting trauma in their lives, as children and adults. The book is strongest when it draws readers close to the private histories of the survivors the author has chosen to follow. Detailing the impact of trauma on various aspects of their lives and what helped them heal, the author situates these experiences within India’s social and historical context. Research, studies and data tie these experiences together, making the book as much a collective portrait as a series of individual stories.

 

The book demonstrates with insight how trauma resides in our bodies, travels through generations and ripples through communities, manifesting in many forms: Anxiety, depression, physical illnesses and addiction.

 

While trauma is increasingly being studied and written about across the world and has become a part of our everyday vocabulary, it also needs to be examined scientifically in an Indian context. Trauma Nation  does this with empathy and depth.

 

The early chapters help make sense of trauma at its most fundamental level. The author adds layers as she moves forward, unpacking it through various lenses, including the scientific history, the connection between stress, reliance and trauma. Trauma, an unhealed psychological wound, was first conceptualised in the context of soldiers returning from war in the early 1900s. But as we know it now, it can occur to just about anyone who goes through a prolonged period of overwhelming stress.

 

Dr Lamba’s case studies are distinct and carefully considered. She examines not only the specific events that caused trauma in the lives of the survivors she interviewed, but also how these events shaped their sense of safety, bodies and relationships.

 

She begins with the story of Gayatri, who spent her childhood protecting her family against her father’s drunken rages and living in fear. Growing up in an upper-middle class home with neighbours and relatives who were aware of the danger the women faced but who chose not to speak up, she endured the abuse till she was old enough to leave the house. For Ankita, in Hyderabad, confronting sexual abuse she faced for several years at the hands of her paternal grandfather left brutal scars, but her supportive family, including a mother who fiercely protected her when the crime came to light, helped the healing process.

 

Then there are the men and women who faced abuse at the hands of a spouse, experienced life-altering accidents or historical tragedies like India’s Partition, carrying those scars to this day and across generations. Some traumas arise from the ways our society is structured and conditioned; others are collective, societal wounds that have shaped entire communities of Indians. Among the questions she asks are: How does childhood adversity echo through our adult relationships? How do belief systems shift in periods of distress? Do historical tragedies — such as Partition — leave an imprint across generations? How does collective resilience as a response to collective trauma help?

 

We are living through a time when secondary trauma, media trauma, even the effects of writing about trauma have become subjects of discussion. Balancing sensitivity with clinical insight, the book is interested in deepening the way we reflect on the many psychological questions it sparks. While many of the stories are troubling and may be triggering for some readers, Dr Lamba writes with restraint, careful not to sensationalise suffering while never shying away from difficult details.

 

While the book presents the story of a country carrying the weight of many kinds of trauma, it is equally invested in the process of healing. The chapter “Healing Together” discusses some of the most effective therapeutic approaches available today, including psychodynamic therapy, movement-based therapies, yoga, breathing techniques, medication, and both Eastern and Western healing philosophies.

 

Many strands of the book come together in “Wisdom from Survivors”, which goes beyond formal therapies to explore the strategies they built for themselves to cope. It’s an important part of the road map the book offers to move from the “cursed heirloom” of trauma towards a psychologically safer society.

 

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The reviewer is an author and journalist covering public health, development policy and culture