After some quiet time and reflection this week, I was suddenly reminded of a drama that I once watched. "It's okay, that's love."

My all time favorite because of the themes that it was challenging. Because of the world norms that it questioned.

One poignant scene had the senior therapist in the car asking the other passengers why people couldn't see mental illness for what it was: an illness. He likened it to a cold. It's not normal for the body just as mental illness is not normal for the mind. Yet instead of encouraging medication to help treat it, people write it off carelessly.

Which made me think of my own experiences. So often... in fact far too often, I was told it was all in my mind. That i just needed to condition my brain. That I just needed to take the steps in any self help book to think normally again.

Would you tell a person suffering from a cold that if they don't sniff or blow their nose or show symptoms of a full blown cold, their body would recover? Would you tell a person with hacking cough to suppress the cough and they would get better?? (Side note, suppressing coughs can worsen your condition. Ask my mom and her 2-month old cough.)

So why do we not recognize that there are symptoms and tests to prove a person is mentally ill just like how there are symptoms and tests to prove a person is bodily ill? Why do we not realize that there is a treatment that needs to be applied to the mentally ill the same way treatment is applied to the bodily ill?


At the end of the day, I have learnt that mental illness is a dark unknown realm to many. And because they don't understand it, there are those who will apply what they know to the unknown. Which just doesn't work. The "top ten tips for effective..." or "things to do for a better..." lists in your hr research books do not work. It's an illness. The person is unwell. Just get treatment to them.

But then, there is a group that seeks to understand it more. There's a group that questions and realizes that they know nothing about mental illness and strive to learn more so they can handle it better. And most of the time, these people have gone through the illness themselves.

Or are from the first group above who have come to realize that they know batshit about depression or anxiety or Tourette syndrome.

After being open about my condition in church, I've learnt that there are so many people... too many people who are fighting demons the way I was fighting mine. And they are losing the same way I lost without proper treatment because they don't realise that they are ill. And so I'm still finding out more about this unknown area in today's world.


And honestly, it's never too late to find out more. To ask. To see how you can help someone by first admitting that you know nothing about helping them.

It's really never too late.