Problems mental illness sufferers face

Brief thoughts.


Stigma being the most obvious and main problem that mental illness sufferers face, there is a list of other issues and obstacles that they have to overcome, which includes but not limited to,

a) Fear of ending up in hospital or IMH. The Institute of Mental Health (IMH) or formerly known as Woodbridge Hospital, carries with it its own stigma.

b) Medication and treatment. Its' costs and the amount of medication they have to take.

c) Suicide. Voicing out their suicidal thoughts.

d) Denial from family, love ones and friends

My own brief thoughts and opinions based on the observations I notice of the above points.

a) I feel that most mental illness sufferers are finding it difficult to accept that they are mentally ill. It is even harder when one realises they may at some point end up in IMH if they are not coping for IMH carries a stigma of being a hospital for the "insane". Naturally that's not necessarily true, yet the perception is there. The fear of hospitals/IMH is very real.

b) Medication for the mentally ill do not come cheap. And unlike a flu or a cough, the medication has to be taken for a minimum of a couple of weeks and for some, it may last a life time. A mental illness is a serious illness that takes a toll on the financial status of the individual. It takes a very severe toll on the financial status of those who's trying to pay off their treatment bills alone. This sometimes results in working adults who's suffering from mental illnesses fearing of losing their job as they would not be able to support their family or pay off their treatment and medication bills, and find themselves having this added to their stress and unable to cope well when they need a break.

For those who are seeking a job, the mental illness stigma prevents them from finding a job easily and often, this also may mean that they have an extra personal reason not to continue with medication thus hindering their recovery.

Another point to note, taking the medication itself is already awful as it is. Imagine having to take several pills everyday for an unknown period of time. It is nothing short of distressing for some of them.

c) The suicide stigma adds further havoc to the lives of those mentally ill. Mental illnesses may result in suicidal thoughts and when those who are on the brink of ending their life is crying out internally for help, they often find themselves facing judgemental words from others, thus finding their pleas for help ignored, judged or invalidated.

There are often very few people who can remain calm and level-headed and yet treat it seriously when listening to the suicidical thoughts and words of those who's feeling helpless and hopeless. This means that those mental illness sufferers who have suicidal thoughts have precious few people if any at all to turn to.

Also, the fact that their doctors (be they psychologists or counselors) are required to breach the term of confidentality if there's a serious danger of the client posing a threat to themselves, mental illness sufferers, especially the younger ones, find themselves afraid of the possibility of their parents finding out.

Nobody wishes to see a suicide note of someone we care and love and knowing that the person has departed from our lives. Yet, it is a sad fact that that's what happened to too many people.

More can be done and should be done to understand how we can help them.

d) Due to a lack of understanding, some mental illness sufferers find themselves in a situation where their parents or love ones do not acknowledge the fact that they are going through a problem. They believe that the mental illness sufferer is actually fine and that there's nothing wrong with them. This effectively in my view shuts down an avenue of support for the mental illness sufferer and creates another front where the individual has to cope with.

At the end of the day, too few have champion the cause, and even fewer still have stood up who have recovered from it themselves

It is very limiting to maintain the status quo. For years countries all over have tried to fight stigma by educating the public through various ways. Yet progress has been painfully slow. I see plenty of workshops educating the public on mental education, I see no workshops dedicated to working on fighting stigma.

My opinion is that the status quo simply maintains the position of "we have the help you need, come to us and we'll see to it that you get treated." That is not a proactive stance.

Simply knowing a brief understanding of what mental illness constitutes is not sufficient to fight stigma.

What can we do more to help?