Lay It All to Me

By Ed Sheeran (photo by Christian Hopkins)

Let's talk about mental health. For some, the topic seems like a waste of time. Because in our society, mental illness associates with craziness. People would always have general(ignorant) things to say about it. When you say Tanjung Rambutan asylum, people would think that's a place where people are capable of going amok and terrorize the whole neighborhood one day. When someone kill themselves or attempt suicide, others would say "Small thing only, want to make drama issit?"

Do you know that about 10% of Malaysian suffers from mental illness? I'm no doctor but that's quite a number. And yet, no one wants to talk about it simply because its taboo. And no parent wants their sons or daughters to be associated with this type of people. But, what type of people are they? They go to the supermarket to get their groceries like everyone else, they watch that reality shows every weekend, they like to hangout at the bookstore to find that new book you read on Oprah's book club and so on. The difference are, they have to fight their way through everything.

Due to this misconceptions, those who are suffering chose to cover their dark shadows either by wearing a mask everyday or isolate themselves with the world. It's quite sad really as they're desperate to live their life peacefully. They don't want to be judged as weak or crazy. They don't want to be treated differently like they're some sort of an alien from outer space. Encourage them but don't criticize.

Unfortunately, we have a long way to go to change people's perceptions on mental illness. Different from other countries, they would advertise places(publicly, on national television) to help with depression, anxiety and even classes for people who would like to understand mental illness. But, a lot of people I've met would say that this is just a white-person's-propagandas illness. In other words, there's no such thing.