Mental Breakdown

Today's newspaper - they mentioned something about doctors getting mental illness due to stress at work. Perhaps it is a response to multiple deaths involving house officers. So it is time for the ministry to re-look into the training system of house officers and the culture of doctors in general here. Poorly developed system.

I am glad that I survived my two year housemanship training. Not to be proud of it, but I strived hard in order to survive. Yet, not everyone can do it. Now that I am in the medical officers world, I still have not got the chance to train the house officers. I do not know if I ever can do it. It is definitely not an easy job.

Well, mental breakdown does not occur just to doctors. It occurs to everybody. This year, I have already encountered several cases of young men with a newly diagnosed psychosis/ schizophrenia/ depression/panic disorder. To my surprises, many of them (men and women) are teachers! I wonder how they did their teaching in class and how they put up with their students? Are they actually delivering the right knowledge? These are the people who are aware of their illnesses (or at least their family members are), so they came for help. How about those out there who aren't even aware that they are sick, or those who are helpless?

Being in this field, I start to think more. Some people believed in black magic. Hence, they go for bomoh or ustaz whenever they feel that they were disturbed. Of course this thing exists, but I can't ignore the fact that some of them are having an undiagnosed mental illness!

Yesterday was another eventful day. A female patient came to our clinic just to have someone to talk to about her life stressors. She cried her heart out. I pitied her so much but there was nothing much I could do. Aunty, I wished you all the best in your life, be patient with all your challenges, do not even attempt to end your life, it is not worth it. Just remember that every single deed you have done, there is reward for it.

People come to our clinic when they are sick, when they are stressed, when they couldn't sleep, when they got divorced, when they were lazy to go to work, when they overslept, when they needed money....all sorts of things. I myself started to feel the stress being in this department. I just put up with it because there is  no on calls..so no matter how difficult the problems I face during work, I can let it go at night and not having have to stay in the hospital doing the calls.

I should be studying about psychiatric illnesses again now.