Wednesday October 10 marks World Mental Health Day. The event will be observed in more than 150 countries through local, regional and national commemorative events and programs.
The events are aimed at raising the public’s awareness about mental health issues that affect people all over the globe. Investment by governments and the involvement of the social, health and education sectors in comprehensive, integrated, evidence-based programs for the mental health of young people is essential. This investment should be linked to programs to raise awareness among adolescents and young adults of ways to look after their mental health and to help peers, parents and teachers know how to support their friends, children and students. This is the focus for this year’s World Mental Health Day.
Throughout history, people afflicted with mental illness have often been stigmatised and ostracised. Worse still is the truism that psychological maladies have long been assailed with confusion, misunderstanding and mistreatment. And worse still is the horrifying prospect of incarceration, persecution and torture such sufferers have undergone.
But while society has come a long way in the progressive treatment afforded to the mentally ill, we still have a long way to go. We still make jokes and laugh at them. Why? One reason is because despite the progress, we live in a society that is still deeply confused about mental illness. Also in general, people tend to fear or dislike what they do not know because they view it as a threat.
Many are unaware that one in ten people suffer from some type of mental illness or trauma in Sri Lanka, according to reports by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The startling figure has been the result of studies done by the World Health Organization. The study had found that the causes for mental illness in Sri Lanka were both varied and complex, though most professionals believe that the 30-year secessionist conflict and the 2004 tsunami were among the more significant events that had been the primary causes for increasing mental health issues in the country. According to national mental health data, two in every 100 Sri Lankans experience a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. However, mental problems can be treated so that people can recover from them in full and hopefully lead normal lives. Nearly 80 percent of these patients, once treated, would go on to make a full recovery and lead normal lives, according to officials.
But they concede that social stigma has been one of the biggest barriers faced by such persons. Psychiatrists will confirm that many of those who are mentally ill are victims of torture by their own minds.
And of course it is made a great deal worse by the unsympathetic and sicker minds which find their actions hilarious. It is even more traumatic for family and friends who love the afflicted sufferers causing them considerable pain as they watch the transformation from who they were to the tortured souls they become. For too long we have swept the problems of mental illness under the carpet with the forlorn hope that they would go away.
The bottom line is this: People become biased towards the mentally ill because they do not understand mental illness. Many place the blame of such inconsiderate disinformation squarely on the shoulders of the media, particularly TV and film-makers. While some outlets treat mental illness with honesty and sensitivity, most popular media treats the mentally ill as frightening, funny, or both.
Yet, never laugh at a person with a mental disorder. That is because it is an illness. And illnesses of any kind are not a laughing matter. To be sure, you can joke with them, laugh with them but never laugh at them. Many people do not seem to give it a second thought. But for people whose loved ones suffer from ongoing mental illness, such portrayals are hurtful and hard to ignore. Just turn on the TV any day of the week and you should be able to find at least one show that either reinforces terror of the mentally ill, or makes light their illness for a cheap laugh.
Misinformation, as well as entertainment that pokes fun at people with mental illness and in some cases encourages laughter at the idea of their mistreatment can be totally damaging to such sufferers. What it actually does accomplish is horrifyingly insensitive to boot.
For one, it further marginalises and dehumanises people with mental illness by treating them as caricatures. Oh yes, it is quite easy to laugh if we forget that we are laughing at real people suffering from real illnesses. Also it encourages persecution and mistreatment.
And it discourages people from seeking help for mental illness. In an environment that vacillates between mockery and horror and with the new media reaching out to millions, such degrading portrayals will only serve to further stigmatise the mentally ill.
What many of us fail to realise is that these people experience a range of emotions, from depression and shame to guilt and loneliness.
Their self-esteem plunges and they are overcome by a sense of hopelessness. In extreme cases, the stigma attached to their condition leads them to commit suicide.
Everyone should spare a thought for sufferers and become dedicated to bringing awareness to mental health. Too many people suffer in silence and go as far as taking their own lives because they are ashamed of who they are and too afraid to speak up. We must pay attention to this crucial question and stop and listen to the quiet cries for help.
Serious mental illness has mythological status in our culture. No wonder so many people have no idea how to relate to a real person who acknowledges or displays a mental illness. That is why this general societal misunderstanding of mental illness affects all of us.
Where do we draw the line? Are we so insensitive to people with mental illness that we enjoy seeing their struggles? What if that person on the news was your mother, brother, sister or child? Would you think it was funny then? Always remember, it’s only funny if the other person is laughing with you.
They say that the dividing line between sanity and mental illness is a tiny thin thread. Which inspires me to conjure up a great counter one-liner for those who persistently debase and make derogatory jokes about the suffering sick.
In my estimation I want to point out that the same perilous dividing line appears to have been drawn in the wrong place. [email protected]
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