Cultural STIGMA PERSISTS
However, social stigma can usually keep citizens from sharing their issues with loved ones or getting aid from medical professionals.
For 58-year-old Angeline Tong, the worry of how others may see her had kept her from seeking help for over a month.
She had started showing signs of anxiety after leaving her task of 15 times in 2013.
Ms Tong said at her lowest, she had frequently wake up feeling “very hopeless”.
“It’s like I do n’t know what to do lying there, ” she added. “Then I have these thinking thoughts over and over again, and then it makes me very scared. ”
She even had real signs, from heart palpitations to bouts of diarrhea.
Finally, Ms Tong decided it was time to notice her family physician, who suspected she might have panic disorder and advised her to find additional help from mental health professionals.
“It was very terrible, because never in my life did I have this, and my family has no emotional health history, ” she said.
“ I could n’t accept it, that something was wrong with me. ”
A long-time companion after counselled Ms Tong, and those words of encouragement reassured her to look for expert help.
“Recovery is not easy, to be honest. It’s very bumpy. Often, I have great time. Often, I have bad days, ” she said.
“Recovery to me is like I have to control my signs, develop tenacity, and create my life more meaningful and fulfilling. ”
Family Counselling Psychologist’s Mr Lim said individuals facing mental health problems do not need to suffer in silence.
“We are a community, ” he said, adding that the first part of seeking help is being aware and admitting that there is a problem.
“We need to socially link, reduce our faces, reduce our confidence, and say: ‘ I need support’. ”