What you need to know about mental health

Let’s talk about mental health, a topic so taboo for so long, few will admit they’ve ever had to deal with it.  But mental health is just another term for balance. Still, people talk about mental health — of others, not theirs — as if it were a disease, using pop psychology to judge people as insane or demented by their behavior. Almost daily, we read articles, comments, and memes on social media psychoanalyzing the latest outrageous acts and pronouncements of two presidents of countries located on both sides of the Pacific and their followers, calling them mental cases.   

Admittedly, there is more openness these days about mental health. More and more, details of the lives and deaths of the rich and famous are emerging on how they grappled with and lost to internal demons — physical, emotional, and psychological.  Prince Harry, Diana’s younger son, just recently admitted that he finally sought help from a professional after years of erratic and unprincely behavior following his mother’s tragic death 20 years ago.  It was an act of courage that will hopefully remove the stigma of mental health problems and encourage those who suffer from them to seek help.

There are hotlines that concerned groups have set up for people with problems to call, literally lifelines where the depressed and suicidal can go to for immediate assistance.  Finally, there is an emerging acceptance of the reality of mental health problems and the possibility of solutions.

The Mental Health Act of 2017, Senate Bill 1354, which aims to integrate mental health services in the public health system, is awaiting passage by the legislature. The bill prescribes a rights-based approach to the care of mental cases, to protect them from common practices of isolation and even punishment by society, sometimes including their families, and even some professionals.

There is much we need to know about mental health. I read online that a 2011 World Health Organization (WHO) study shows that the Philippines has the highest incidence of depression in Southeast Asia. And a 2006 DOH study shows that one out of three employees from 20 government agencies in Metro Manila had experienced a mental health problem or breakdown at least once in their lives, including specific phobias, alcohol abuse, addictions, and other conditions we didn’t realize were related to mental health. The President’s brutal stance on drug addiction is Exhibit A on the lack of understanding of the issue.

There are less than 500 psychiatrists in the country of over a hundred million people, or roughly 50 for every 10 million Filipinos, says the Philippine Psychiatric Association. And most of the people who have to deal with possible mental cases such as health service providers, policemen, jail wardens, and prison guards, have no idea of how to identify and manage even the most common mental health problems.

We are in trouble and we’re not even aware of it.

My brush with mental health problems was early in my career when as a young reporter, I was assigned by an editor to elicit stories from practicing psychiatrists about their patients. My stories would be serialized in a women’s weekly magazine.  The doctors shared stories that were detailed except for names, places, and dates so that no one but those in the know could identify the patient involved. The stories were so intense, and as I wrote them, I began to live them myself. Needless to say, it was a short series. I could not take the stress.

I learned that not everyone who sees a shrink is crazy, but the stigma is there. They may just need someone to talk to. Some decades back, in the midst of a crisis, I was advised  by a psychiatrist friend to see a psychiatrist. I needed to talk out my situation, clarify the picture before me, and examine my options. Talking about my problems was so therapeutic, I looked forward to our weekly sessions. Our conversations were so open, it came to a point when I wished psychiatrists would have the power to give absolution because, having spilled out my guts to this kind man, I felt purged, ready to re-start my interrupted life. 

I attended his wake when my doctor died. When people asked me how I knew him, I said I was his patient, which was met with slightly raised eyebrows and an awkward silence. End of conversation.

This stigma of seeing a shrink remains for the most part, which means we have to keep talking about the need for mental health until everyone understands what it is about, so we stop judging others and look at their experiences objectively, with compassion, if possible.

Passing the Mental Health Act and implementing it well is a good first step in bringing our people closer to mental health. HEART & MIND by Paulynn P. Sicam