Mental Hell

Mental health problems? “Gawa-gawa lang ng mga tao iyan!” Filipino comedian Joey de Leon carelessly expressed, October 2017.

Mental health issues in the Philippines are rampant. A research by Dr. Tomas Bautista revealed that roughly 1 percent of the country’s population suffer from schizophrenia. Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) disclosed that in 2015, an estimated 5,402 Filipinos were submitted into mental health facilities because of drug use, a type of substance abuse. To add, 27.6 percent is the prevalence rate for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), one of the top illnesses plaguing the nation.

What exactly is going on here?

Because of the stigma and traditional insight on mental health, it becomes difficult for some people, especially those from the older generation, to take it seriously; they were already conditioned to think of mental health as a mere test of willpower from a long time ago. This stigma could be transcended of course and it has been transcended by many, but there are still just as many people who remain near-sighted and close-minded.

Interestingly, there are also people who have accepted the reality of mental health and its problems… but a bit too enthusiastically. Clinical terminologies such as “bipolar,” “antisocial,” “anxiety,” and “depression” are reduced into casual expressions and are thoughtlessly inserted into small talk.

Although subtle, this is part of the reason why mental health is discarded in the country. The use of these terms as expressions twist the perception around mental health and may even affirm the logic that it’s just a joke or trend. Couple that with the romanticizing of mental disorders, the boom of the advocacy in social media, and the unli and unreliable references in Google and you’ve got people who acknowledge mental health, but do not actually know what it essentially is.

Consequently, this leads to self-diagnosis or the act of diagnosing yourself with a mental health illness. This is just as hurtful as ignoring your mental health for reasons such as the large risk of misdiagnoses and wrong treatment; you’re no psychologist after all.

These destructive outlooks contribute to the mental hell ravaging the Philippines. Fortunately, this can be corrected. Instead of ignoring, romanticizing, self-diagnosing, or such and such, turn to mental health care professionals, psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and guidance counselors. Through them, you will be able to more accurately understand what mental health is and what your own mental state is. By doing so, it will also leave a crack on the stigma around mental health services.

With mental health, it’s really a matter of seeking help and knowledge from the capable persons.