KYY

Mental depression can kill you

Recently the famous food connoisseur, Anthony Bourdain

committed suicide prompted me to write this piece to share my

experience with you. Everyone should know about mental

depression problem.

Let me tell you my experience. I come from a poor family. I

have 11 siblings and you can imagine how we used to rush for

food during meal time. My father was an undertaker and sold

coffins.

Among all my siblings, I have a younger brother called Mark

who was 9 years younger. I took care of him and took him to St

John Institution K.L. on my bicycle. At that time, we were

allowed to carry someone on our bicycle. He was quite clever in

school.

I supported him to study dentistry in Singapore University with

my small pay as a young Engineer, working for the Public

Works Department which is currently known as Jabatan Kerja

Raya. My monthly salary was only Rm 760.

Mark passed his dental degree with flying colours and the

University selected him to teach in the medical department.

Even the dean of medicine liked him so much that he allowed

his daughter, an arts graduate, to marry him.

After about 20 years of marriage, he divorced his wife to marry

a young dentist who was about half his age. Soon the young

dentist left him for another younger man.

He felt so down hearted and he wanted to prove that he could

make more money from the stock market. He invested all his

saving in the stock market to show that he could be rich quickly.

But he failed and lost all his saving.

He asked me for financial help and I ignore him. He lost his

young wife and all his saving. As a result, he went into deep

depression.

When he repeatedly asked for my help, I just ignored him.

Instead of helping him, I would criticise him and I told him that

he must be holding the record for being the worst graduate

from Singapore University. As a result, he went into deeper

depression.

All the people know about physical health but very few people

know about the importance of mental health. I must admit that I

also did not know about mental depression.

On day about 25 years ago, I took him to see the psychiatrist at

the Ipoh Fatimah Hospital. The doctor told me that anti pression

drugs would take about 2 weeks to take effect but if he applied

electrical shock treatment he could get well almost instantly.

On Monday morning, the doctor gave him an electric shock

treatment. After about 1 hour, he felt better. On Wednesday

morning the doctor gave him the 2 nd electric shock treatment.

While waiting for me, his friend, Father Rudy Wong, a Catholic

priest took him to buy a package of noodle for breakfast and left

him in his house. When I went to the hospital, I was told that

Father Rudy had taken him home. I rushed to my brother’s

house to apologise for being late. I was shocked to see that he

used the wire from his fan to hang himself. Mark committed

suicide at the age of 50.

I regret that I was so foolish and ignorant.

In fact, the psychiatrist should know that mental depression

patients had suicidal tendency and he should keep his patients

under 24 hours supervision. He should not allow his patient to

leave the hospital until his patient was completely stabilized.

Most of us see depression as a phenomenon caused mainly by

various negative events we have experienced and unfortunate

circumstances that make us feel down and gloomy. However,

there are a variety of everyday causes of depression that most

people ignore and that actually affect the quality of our lives in a

significant way.

So, if you feel unexplained sadness, are overwhelmed with

constant negative thoughts, and have a host of other symptoms

that indicate that you may be depressed, it is time to see a

psychiatrist.