Dealing with mental health
TheStar Online, 20 March 2014
IN Malaysia as in many countries, individuals with mental health issues face immense challenges that impair their ability to seek help to deal with it.
These challenges exist not only within their environment but also within themselves.
Mental illness is a largely under-diagnosed and under-recognised issue globally, yet it is a big medical burden in any community.
There are many causes for this, however a major one is the stigma our community attaches to mental illness.
From large cities to small villages, there is inevitably someone dirty and dishevelled who can be seen wandering the streets, barefooted and talking to himself and who onewould term as a “person with mental illness”.
Instead the person would be called “orang gila” (mad person), “kepala tak betul” (problem with his head), or that the person had a “wiring short-circuit!” (sic).
A consequence of this kind of labelling is discrimination within their workplace, organisation and the community itself.
This stigma and stigmatising labels create problems for the individuals themselves.
To avoid unkind labels and the burden of a mental illness diagnosis, individuals tend to self-isolate themselves and be reluctant to address the fact that they may have a problem that needs help.
They are on a slippery slope where their mental health can deteriorate further to the extent that they can no longer function well and impact socio-economically on themselves, their families and the community.
It is not uncommon to read of a person, who is known to have some degree of untreated depression or anxiety, to eventually run amok and injure others.
The situation could have been avoided if the person had access to mental healthcare professionals earlier.
It is important that all parties
recognise that mental illness impacts all layers of our society and the stigma just compounds the problem.
In recognising that mental illness does not need to be an illness that the homeless, dishevelled person has, but can manifest in “mild” issues such as stress, anxiety and depression, we would be better placed to help.
If our friends or family face such issues, the best way to help is to encourage them to discuss it and to reassure them that there is help out there, rather than reinforce their self-isolation.
Hopefully, we can mature to the point that we accept mental illness in the same way as common illnesses like cardiovascular disease or diabetes, rather than treat it as something that has to be hidden.
DR IMRAN HAFIDZ
Kuala Lumpur
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