Read the passage below and answer the questions
Sudhir is a 15-year-old boy, who has recently begun to experience persistent sadness and loss of interest in activities he once enjoyed. He is often found to be irritated without any specific reasons. Despite parental and school support, he feels worthless and thinks his future is doomed. His academic performance and social life has been severely affected. It has been found that his maternal uncle had also experienced such problems when he was young. However, timely identification and psychological aid helped in improving his condition. Psychologists have emphasized that these patterns are not merely emotional reactions and may indicate a mood disorder that is characterized by a disturbed emotional state which may include prolonged periods of sadness and thoughts of self-harm and suicide in serious cases.
Early intervention helps mainly in:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Preventing from worsening the condition
Option (1) Preventing from worsening the condition — Correct. Early identification, treatment and care of people at risk is one of the measures for preventing suicide, and better identification, referral and management are needed, because stigma often keeps timely help from reaching people. In the passage, timely identification and psychological aid helped in improving the condition.
Option (2) Elimination of personality traits — Incorrect. Traits are relatively enduring features of a person; intervention treats a disorder, it does not remove one’s personality.
Option (3) Ensuring complete immunity — Incorrect. No help can make a person permanently safe from a disorder; early help limits harm, it does not give immunity.
Option (4) Avoiding stressors — Incorrect. Stressors are part of life and often cannot be avoided; early intervention helps the person get treatment and cope, rather than keeping stress away.
NCERT (2025-26): “Bipolar and Related Disorders … The stigma surrounding suicide continues despite recent advances in research in this field. Due to this, many people who are contemplating or even attempting suicide do not seek help thus, preventing timely help from reaching them. Therefore improving identification, referral, and management of behaviour are crucial for preventing suicide. Therefore we need to identify vulnerability; comprehend the circumstances leading to such behaviour and accordingly plan interventions. Suicides are preventable. There is a need for comprehensive multi-sectoral approach where the government, media and civil society all play important role as stakeholders. Some measures suggested by WHO include:
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