Facing depression: Working adults battle not just demons, but also stigma
SINGAPORE: Outwardly, his wife and two young sons are his sources of joy. He seems a regular family man when he's with them. What is less apparent is that Mr Mak Kean Loong struggles to feel emotions like happiness.
#5 Living with bipolar disorder
SINGAPORE: World Bipolar Day falls on Mar 30 each year – the birthday of Vincent Van Gogh. A Dutch painter in the 1800s and one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art, Van Gogh suffered from several mental breakdowns in his life. He often neglected his physical health. His friendship with a close friend and fellow painter, Paul Gauguin ended after a purported mental episode in which Van Gogh severed part of his own left ear and offered it to a prostitute.
‘Crazy, weird, scary’: Survey unveils negative labels youths associate with mental illness
SINGAPORE — Researchers have called for regular and compulsory education on mental health for youths, in the wake of a study that found a large proportion of this group having misconceptions of mental illness. Almost half (44.5 per cent) of 940 teenage students polled attached negative and pejorative labels to people with mental illness. “Crazy”, “weird”, “scary”, “stupid” and “dangerous” were among the words that came to mind then the respondents heard the term “mental illness”, reported the study, which was presented at the Frontiers in Mental Health symposium organised by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and Nanyang Technological University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine on Tuesday (March 6). Some 46.2 per cent of the respondents, who were aged between 14 and 18, also said they would be “very embarrassed” if they were diagnosed with a mental illness, while nearly a quarter (22.7 per cent) said they would not want others to know if their relative were mentally ill.
#6 Alcohol Dependence - No different from drugs: Stopping problem drinking before it begins
SINGAPORE: At the birthday parties and family celebrations Nigel* used to attend, alcohol was freely available. He was then in his early teens. “It was just there, and the uncles would say, come here and have a drink young man, and we would just pick it up, no permission needed,” he recalled. “It was all about being funny and jovial.
11-year-old boy’s suicide due to exam and parental stress: State Coroner
SINGAPORE: For the first time in his life, the 11-year-old boy had failed his exams. Rather than face the disappointment of his parents, he jumped 17 floors from his bedroom window. On Friday (Oct 21), State Coroner Marvin Bay concluded that the boy’s death was not from an accidental fall but an act of suicide, adding that he seemed to have buckled under his parents’ pressure. The court heard that on the morning of May 18 this year, the day he was to show his parents his mid-year examination results, the Primary 5 student locked himself in his bedroom. Shortly after when his parents realised the door was locked, they opened it with a spare key and found him missing.
Singapore's High Functioning Depression
SINGAPORE — On social media, Ms Lynette D'Cruz, 29, appears to have the perfect life. Her Facebook page is filled with photos of her travels and overseas treks, including her mountain climbs in the region. "I'm always trekking, travelling to places, keeping fit, my friends are in awe of how much weight I've lost," said Ms D'Cruz. However, some of her friends do not know that she is "struggling to cope with painful depression every day."
Alcohol abuse worse among younger people, Singapore News
SINGAPORE (THE NEW PAPER) - The young man woke up in his bed one morning to find himself surrounded by chocolates. He had blacked out after a night of heavy drinking and had no recollection of how he had got home with his bounty. The young man, who does not even like chocolates, suspected that he might have stolen them and was lucky not to have been caught. Mr Lawrence Tan, a psychologist, related this anecdote to show how excessive drinking can lead to individuals committing a crime without being aware of it.
Schizophrenia, a life increasingly detached from reality
SINGAPORE: It was a cold night in January. A sudden clap of thunder woke me up from a fitful slumber and disoriented me. Somehow seized with the notion I was under surveillance, I thought to myself: “The world is ending”.
