Thursday, June 01, 2006

Ask and you shall get...

The typical Asian is often concerned about face. That means the outside must always look fine even if the inside isn't. It's got a lot to do with pride, this face, and a lot of time, it hinders a whole lot. Because I've been educated in the capacity of a mental healthcare professional, I know that sometimes to solve problems, help must be asked for first because on the outside, it may look like there's nothing wrong. Or that whatever physical manifestation of the problem there is, is just taken at face value- that it is just a physical ailment rather than an outward symptom of something more sinister going on.

The problem with us Asians is that it takes a lot for us to admit that there's something wrong. It's taboo to say that not everything is A-ok with us. Because when we do, others will talk. And frankly, that pisses me off.

Sometime ago, someone asked me what I was going to do about a problem I was facing. I told him that the answer to my problem was clear but I didn't want to think about what my family would say about my decision. Wise man that he was, he told me that at the end of the day, the solution to my problem was going to impact Packrat and I. What everyone thought or said was not secondary. It's not wisdom on par with Solomon, but it really sank in.

It would really make things easier if people who really needed help thought the same way as well. It doesn't matter what other people say, if you need help, you need help. I was talking to someone who is apparently clinically depressed. I say apparently because this was diagnosed by a General Practitioner and not by a psychiatrist. I ask if he's seeing a psychiatrist/psychologist/therapist and he says no. Because he's already on Prozac. Ok... Then I ask if he thinks he can deal with his problems now that he's on Prozac and he doesn't know. My next question stumps him- What happens when you're taken off the Prozac? So I regroup and ask another question- Why don't you want to see a therapist?

And his answer was that because there was stigma. Yup, maybe, but the world is transient. The people who will talk are transient. Their attention span is mercifully short. They might talk, but only till the next new piece of news comes around. But then again, some people who talk, also have elephant memories and I see the problem there.

But sigh, at the end of the day, I think it's silly when you know you need help, but you're not willing to go out there and get it. Because, at the end of the day, it'll just harm you more than it'll harm those inquisitive tentacles of the elusive all powerful grapevine.

Related posts: Depression

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Ondine tossed this thought in at 16:48

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