Being in top three of Bachelors of Arts (BA) final year examination results of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) Shimla, Preeti (name changed) dreamt of becoming an officer by cracking the civil services examination.

As her brother didn’t do well in academics despite her parents efforts, Preeti wanted to fulfill their dream of making their children class one officers. So while pursuing her masters degree from HPU, Preeti started to devote up to 15 hours daily in order to crack the civil services examination.

But soon things took turn for the worse as she suffered stress and lapsed into depression within six months.

“To achieve my goal, I used to study with passion and that passion led me to stress and depression. For number of days, I was on the same page of a book without turning it for once. My parents never asked what I was doing in my room as according to them I was studying. After few days, it all affected my mental peace and I suffered depression which was followed by some other psychological disorder. My treatment for same is still on and now I am suffering from claustrophobia and isolophobia (autophobia),” she said.

Despite taking admission in Panjab University in Chandigarh for a change, Preeti failed to come out of the depression and has now left the city for home town.

Preeti is not the only one to suffer from depression due to pressure created by self and others for cracking competitive examinations and becoming a successful person in a respected field. This concern for a bright career is apparently causing anxiety and depression to increasing number of youngsters. The lack of communication between parents and children is adding to the trend.

“I am in this profession from past 30 years and number of youngsters suffering from depression is increasing every day. They think lack of good career is end of life. This leads to many diseases like anxiety, panic attacks, stress, depression, hysteria etc,” a psychological counselor Dr Shashi Sethi said adding that about 40 per cent of total cases handled by her belong to this category.

“Besides studies, break up or failure in relationships is one the major causes for depression amongst youngsters. This situation gets worse when many of times youngsters find no one to share their feelings with. There is no comfort zone between parents and children which many times pushes youngsters towards these psychological disorders which directly or indirectly affects their career,” she added.

A resident of Sector 11 in Chandigarh, Nidhi (name changed) slipped into depression after she feared to lose one year of studies after graduation following pending revaluation of second year examination.

“I was admitted in the hospital four times for some gastrointestinal disorder. Doctors treated me to their best but my health was still poor. Later a doctor told me to tell everything in detail. While narrating my story, started crying without any cause as my health was perfect according to my reports. Doctor then told me it’s depression and after few therapies it all is out of my life,” she said.