Written by: Nur Sorfina Binti Mohd Razali, Director of Public Relations Taylor’s Connect
Published on Leaderonomics.com
Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka
Our late first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman shouted “Merdeka” seven times on the 31st August 1957, holding a powerful message of declaring Malaya’s independence from the British. Today, we celebrate Malaysia’s 64th Independence Day anniversary but the way we celebrate may be different due to the pandemic (no parades at Dataran Merdeka).
Covid-19 affects Malaysia negatively in economic and social factors. However, it serves as an eye opener for us, in unveiling the hidden problems that haunt most Malaysians regardless of their age - Mental health issues. It symbolizes a hidden enemy behind Malaysia's independence. A big wall which we are struggling to destroy, especially within young people.
Published on Motivirus.com
Mental health: A new normal of Covid-19 pandemic
Before the pandemic, the 2019 National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS 2019) reported almost half a million Malaysians experiencing symptoms of depression and things got worse when the pandemic hit globally.
631 suicide cases in 2020 and 336 cases in the first quarter of 2021 as per reported by Malaysia’s Health Ministry (MOH).
Face the reality - the young people or our potential future leaders also experience mental disorders!
According to Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye (the patron of the Befrienders Kuala Lumpur), 424,000 children are exposed to mental health problems (50% of them are by the age of 14 and 75% belong to mid-20s.
It is simply unimaginable to see them struggling at a young age with such problems that may or may not have a solid solution. We as youth are supposed to enjoy our life by exploring incredible things around the world, hanging out with friends and making unforgettable memories. However, we feel grateful to see some Malaysians who’re caring enough to support us emotionally by advocating mental health awareness. It is great to see some of us take the responsibility, helping to make our voices heard. As such, it makes us feel that we’re not alone in this suffering world. The awareness of the challenges faced by the youth especially during the pandemic is of utmost importance, to serve as the foundation of understanding when advocating mental health awareness.
Challenges face by youth:
(1) Social media kills youth’s insanity
Published on The McGill Tribune.com
We are now living in the new modern digital era in which being active in social media is a part of our daily life. The best thing about social media is that it helps us to connect with our friends virtually and share our own thoughts, feelings and opinions on a matter. However, it totally contradicts this statement “Like it or not, using social media can cause anxiety, depression and other health challenges”. A question is to put forth - how does social media contribute to the digital age of vulnerability?
Hello, youth! What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? You’ll be searching your phone and scrolling through social media, definitely! In fact, by doing that, it could lead to screens dictating your daily life and not being able to start a day with a calm mind.
Fear of missing out (FOMO)! Imagine our friends are active on social media or joining the Tiktok trend, missing that experience may cause us to feel anxiety and depression. The feeling of being excluded affects us emotionally and slowly kills us from the inside. A study by the British in 2018 reported that the usage of social media contributed to disrupted sleep affecting our memory strength and academic performance.
Not only that, we are exposed to the terror of cyberbullying on social media. People around us have the guts to do terrible things such as spreading lies, sending hurtful messages or comments or viral embarrassing videos or photos. It may seem as if it is such a miniscule issue to others but this act may change one’s personality to a negative side significantly.
(2) The endless fatigue of Open and Distance Learning (ODL)
Published on The Daily Texan.com
Due to the pandemic, the education system is forced to implement ODL to ensure the education planning wouldn’t be affected. Initially, it was great to receive that news as we do not have to wake up super early in the morning to rush for public transportation or avoid traffic jams. We can just simply attend the classes from our bed and stay cozy at home. However, life is never like a fairy tale. In fact, ODL takes a toll on our emotional well-being. We didn’t get a chance to meet our friends physically or have a real conversation with them. Instead, we are spending most of our time staring at the screen laptop for more than 8 hours per day and losing human touch with others.
Other than that, not all of us have a conducive studying environment or stable internet connection at home. Some of us might need to take care of siblings or even work part-time jobs to financially support the family. We end up juggling our time with family, studies, part-time job or extracurricular activities which is totally absurd for a young person to endure. With such pressure, it tends to make us feel stressful, there’s an endless worry about achieving good academic performance affecting our mental health condition.
(3) Struggles to secure job
Published on Financial Times
The fear of being unable to secure jobs upon graduation always lingered in our mind. Getting a job is unlike doing assignments in which we can get help from our friends but it is purely based on your efforts and performance during your assessments and interview. When most of our friends successfully secure jobs except you, we'll definitely feel stressed and start to isolate ourselves from them. This is where loneliness will slowly conquer our daily life leading to emotional problems such as depression and feeling unworthiness. If loneliness is not cured, then it will cause chronic loneliness symptoms.
As such, we can't run away from those problems, it will be part of a new normal life in future. To survive in this cruel world, we have to endure it in a better way. Looking at the bright side of the current situation, the number of advocates for mental health awareness keeps rising and even some corporate companies care for their employees’ emotional well-being. It is a good sign that most of us start to take this matter seriously and even have the courage to seek help when needed.
In relation to Malaysia's 64th Independence Day, we as youth should incorporate ourselves with a patriotic spirit for making a better Malaysia. The spirit not only covers being soldiers fighting for country peace but contributing small changes that can give a huge positive impact to Malaysia. To achieve it, youths may focus on the initiative of raising mental health awareness among Malaysians.
Why mental health?
If one’s mental health issues do not get addressed, they may not be in the healthiest well being when attempting to unleash their true potential and contribute to society in becoming future leaders.
1. Be part of mental health advocacy
Advocacy may be perceived as a big responsibility and difficult to accomplish. Simply being an advocate is taking one’s own initiative and putting more effort in gaining knowledge, understanding the matter and using it to provide support or help others.
One of the greatest benefits of being part of the advocacy is your voice will represent the unheard. Such an honourable, noble thing to do at a young age. It helps to build your own confidence and believe in yourself that your voice holds such power.
You’ll have the chance to work closely with industry leaders or NGOs as it would help you to gain better insights especially on the seriousness of mental health problems in Malaysia. You'll also be exposed to critical thinking skills as you’ll need to organize webinars, campaigns and many more that can help to provide emotional support to Malaysians. Showing that they’re not alone in suffering mental health problems.
2. Provide emotional support to people around you
If you are not ready to be an advocate, it is okay and don’t pressure yourself. Some things in life might take some time to realize. Take small steps by providing emotional support to your closed ones, friends or people around you. Whenever they’re at their lowest point in life, be there for them, lend your ears to them or offer genuine encouragement and compassion. Remember, don’t give advice unless they need it. Sometimes they need someone to talk to and not seek advice.
You’ll never realize such small steps might save their lives from falling into the deepest, darkest of mental health problems in life. You’ll never know that you might be their reason to rise stronger in future and be a better person or they’ll gain the courage to be an advocate.
“If every person who’s in pretty good shape can make a commitment to reaching out to one person they are concerned might be lonely once a week, that would be a good thing.” By Richard Weissbourd, psychologist, senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Note: Be willing to put yourself out there to be someone else’s emotional support ONLY if you’re able to and it isn’t going to impact them
3. Take a great care of your mental health condition
Even though you are an advocate or constantly providing emotional support to others but you neglect your own mental health well-being, then it is useless. Remember to always prioritise yourself when advocating for mental health awareness. Prioritising doesn’t mean being selfish but taking great care of your mental condition. Consistently in doing self love or self care activities. Take a break when needed. You yourself are a potential future leader. If you are not in the right state of mind, you might not be able to influence others on mental health awareness.
If you’re not taking care of yourself, then who will do it for you?
Published on bphope
As such, these methods will somehow help Malaysians beat the hidden enemy - Mental health problems. Having a strong spirit similar to a patriotic spirit will be able to beat it. To all Malaysian youths, don’t give up when fighting to overcome mental health problems, picture yourself as a soldier fighting for Malaysia’s independence. The journey may not be easy but your hard work will pay off. Once you have succeeded in the fight, you will be stronger emotionally and mentally, which leads to a strong growth mindset. By being mentally stable, you will be a good candidate to become one of Malaysia's future leaders besides having good leadership skills and excellent soft skills.
You’ll never know that your hard work & effort will save many innocent lives.