Good For You

How scary is that statistic? ST reported today that for every 6 people you see in the streets of Singapore- 1 is suffering a mental illness. As you sit around in a classroom of 40 kids, 6 or 7 people are fighting depression, emotional trauma or more likely temporary stress-related disorders that inhibit the ability to function normally. The teacher is probably the one who is fighting off the worst battle- as many of the patients in Woodbridge have been a teacher at one time or another.

Some of the signs and symptoms of mental illness include:

In adults:

1. talking to himself or herself
2. talking rapidly jumping from one topic to another
3. prolonged sadness and irritability
4. feelings of extreme highs and lows
5. dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits
6. delusions or hallucinations
7. suicidal thoughts
8. numerous unexplained physical complaints

In children and adolescents:

1. refusing to go to school
   
2. complaints of “physical ailments”
3. excessive anxiety and worry
4. excessive irritability- getting annoyed with very minor things
   
5. aggressive defiance of authority, truancy, theft
6. prolonged negative mood with thoughts of death

There are many ways to treat mental illness, chief of which is to identify and admit that you have a problem and then go seek professional help if you can’t get help from friends, family, church. Singaporeans really need to learn to relax more and not take life so seriously as well.