REACTION PAPER

ARTICLE TITLE: Understanding Mental Illness Stigma in the Philippines

LINK: https://hellodoctor.com.ph/healthy-mind/mental-illness-stigma-philippines/

It’s still a challenge for us Filipinos to address mental illness in our society. The Republic Act No.
11036 also known as the “Mental Health Bill” was signed into law in 2018, it affirms mental health as a
basic human right in the Philippines. Even though this bill was signed into law, the problem still arises in
each of us creating a stigma regarding social status, especially in the aspect of mental health. Addressing
this concern is somehow making progress as each of us is learning to accept and understand the
situations of those people who are having a mental health crisis.

As reported by the Department of Health (DOH), Depression is a serious health problem in the
Philippines alongside with common flu. Stated that 8 in every 100,000 Filipinos die by suicide. This
reflects that the awareness of Filipinos regarding Mental Health is not strong enough and we need to
strengthen and spread the knowledge to all of us.

Filipinos known to be as being able to endure in some scenarios which gives a positive aspect or
outlook that we can be able to reflect a strong personality outside. On the other side, it becomes our
defense mechanism because we don’t have a choice but to keep moving forward even though it gives us
uncertainties and fear when thinking about the possible outcomes. I suppose that this kind of
mechanism varies in every person depending on how they cope with their problems because all of us
differ in what we deal with in life. As time goes by, it becomes heavy, and we can’t handle those properly
it becomes out of reach and that’s why some people are breaking down and don’t know what to do.

In our current situation, most of us can share our feelings with our loved ones. Still, some easily
give harsh and irrelevant comments thinking that a person who has mental health problems is weak
doesn’t pray and is not religious. As a result, they started to think that they were the problem, and they
were acting crazy and out of sanity. At some point, this is so wrong and we need to correct this kind of
mindset. The problem also lies in what our family taught us and how we foresee each problem in every
situation that we are in.

In dealing with them, we have to be more careful with the words that we’re going to share. Be
mindful of things that may trigger them. We should see to them that they’re more than their problem,
that they’re worth it to give time and we are willing to listen to their situations. We don’t have to force
them to share fully their problems and should let them talk at their own pace. And last, we need to put
ourselves in their shoes to fully empathize and understand them holistically.