How can we change the stigma associated with mental illness?

Discussion Unit 8

Mental Illness is highly misunderstood. For example, there are some police officers that will mistreat an individual that is diagnosed with mental illness because they are not aware of their disability. Others, claim to have acted on horrendous acts (e.g., massacres) due to mental illness.

What were your previous thoughts about mental illness? Have you met/encountered/heard of anyone with a mental health illness? Describe the event, how did you feel about their behavior, what happened to the individual?  How is mental illness viewed in the media/society? What can we do, as a society, to change the stigma associated with mental illness and how can we become a better resource for individuals that have a psychological disorder?

Your Discussion should be at least 250 words in length, but not more than 750 words. Use APA citations and references for the textbook and any other sources used.

Right under my nose, mental illness had been part of our family members before I was born.  So naturally I did pay a lot of attention and interest over this subject which is often highly misunderstood and many are not trained to handle them as they are.  Today some police officers are not able to handle them and might mistreat them.  I highly encourage psychology subjects to be taught generally in our school so that generally it raises awareness in the society.

When I was at the age of 4 years old, my coolest uncle who love me dearly committed suicide in forest nearby hanging himself under the tree.  It shocked all of us and it really saddened all of us badly.  Fortunately as for me I was at that young age, I was unable to comprehend what's happening to him after his physical existence has disappeared and gone forever.  Each time when I thought of his departure, tears of mixture of joy and sadness struck on me.  

My uncle was the top student in my nation with the highest Mensa IQ test at that time and the first student got a partial scholarship to study Agricultural and Livestock Science (Genetic) at University of Melbourne, Australia.  It all started after my grandparents got divorced when he was studying in University.  My grandfather caught my first grandmother having an affair with another man and that itself had led to divorced.   

New Research from the University of Toronto has suggested that Adult children of divorce are more likely to have seriously considered suicide than their peers from intact families.  

Unfortunately I believe he has developed some kind of mental health problems, especially mood disorders which affected his studies badly.  He stopped his studies in his 3rd year, came back with strong hatred toward my grandfather and went to live with his mother as he was always close to his mother.

Partially my grandmother must have played a role of being an evil parasite stirring up anger and hatred in him.  After months staying with her together, he went to his father's house and killed him by chopping him with a machete more than 18 times in the orchard garden.  My father was inside the house in a panic and my 2nd grandmother managed to escape.  Sensationally the news went nationwide as my grandfather was one of the prominent people in our parliament.  Policemen came and took him away.  It was classified under murder case. 

My aunt was working with the hospital as the hospital sister (chief) suggested that he is having some kind of mental illness and that's how he can escape from death sentence.  After years of trials, finally the judge ordered him stay in the mental hospital for treatment of mental illness brought on by the charges against him.

Caption: Hospital Bahagia was known as Tanjung Rambutan Hospital is the oldest mental institution in the country, with a history dating back over 100 years. It happens to be the largest one too!

He must have faked some kind of mental illness as suggested from my aunt and after slightly more than 2 years, he was released and he came to stay with us.  He suffered a lot with mental illness patients and horrible food was given to them due to massive corruption within the mental sickness hospital.  Fortunately he was released from it, escaped from death sentence and he started giving extra classes to help the students on their studies.  I was told all of his students ended up in professions like doctor, engineer, lawyers, etc.

Even he managed get out from mental sickness hospital, he suffered some kind of name calling to those who knew his history of murder case.  He got into a mixture of anxiety, depression, fatigue, stress and felt the pain each time he came across any image or object looking like a machete.  This reminded me of Watson's experiments on classical conditioning over Little Albert.  His own murdering object has subconsciously created a conditioning of fear response to those objects. Besides that unpleasantly, subconsciously he can't escape from his own consciousness  and slowly he develops a phobia afraid of ghosts and later I came to know it is known as Phasmophobia. Due to overwhelming of the fear of ghosts, he ended up commit suicide in the forest.  As for my 1st grandmother who loved me dearly, suffered similar to his son's Phasmophobia and died alone suffered from a heart attack.  It's kamma.

My personal experiences and listening to Sadhguru's talks has changed my perception toward those who suffer any form of mental illness and developed more compassionate understanding toward them.  Everyday I continue to do my prayers for them with forgiveness.

Credit: MARCELO BRAGA/FLICKR

What can we do, as a society, to change the stigma associated with mental illness and how can we become a better resource for individuals that have a psychological disorder?

MY answer to this question is listen and watch this youtube I found from youtube.

"Human sanity is a very fragile thing. The line between sanity and and insanity is so thin. If you push it everyday, you will cross it."

-- Sadhguru

Why Would One Take Their Own Life? 🙏 With Sadhguru in Challenging Times - 14 Jun

00:00 Sadhguru Darshan Starts with Sadhguru Chant "Yoga yoga yogeeshwaraya"

19:20 Why do people commit suicide?

Words count: 750

References

University of Toronto. (2011, January 26). Parental divorce linked to suicidal thoughts. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 22, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110119084516.htm

Amy Morin, LCSW (2019). The Psychological Effects of Divorce on Children. Retrieved from 

https://www.verywellfamily.com/psychological-effects-of-divorce-on-kids-4140170

Ris (2019). I Explored Tanjung Rambutan’s Mental Asylum – Here’s What It’s Really Like. Retrieved from https://inreallife.my/i-explored-tanjung-rambutans-mental-asylum-heres-what-its-really-like/

John Cline (2013). What Is a Machete, Anyway?. Retrieved from 

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/what-is-a-machete-anyway/280705/

OpenStax College (2017). Psychology. Retrieved from https://openstax.org/details/psychology.

Kendra Cherry (2019). The Little Albert Experiment. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-little-albert-experiment-2794994

Kimberly Holland (2019). All About Phasmophobia, or Fear of Ghosts. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/phasmophobia#effects-on-daily-life

Mensa International. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved October 23, 2020, from 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensa_International