Daisyspeak

I refer to the MediaCorp drama series "My Love, My Home" which is telecast every weekday from 9pm to 10pm, in particular, the episode shown on the 3th of November 2003.

In one scene of that episode, Hailan, a16-year old girl broke down in the face of pressure from her elder brother in relation to her 'O" Level Examinations. This resulted in a panic attack during her Mathematics paper. Thereafter, she was taken away and diagnosed by a psychiatrist.

In response to this scene, I would like to point out some scathing mistakes made by the scriptwriters. In the show, Hailan was diagnosed as suffering from depression. However, the psychiatrist in the show proceeded to list out symptoms of obsessive compulsive behaviour instead. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is characterised by obsessive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors that significantly interfere with normal life. Obsessions are unwanted, recurring, and disturbing thoughts which the person cannot suppress and can cause overwhelming anxiety. Compulsions are repetitive, ritualized behaviors that the person feels driven to perform to alleviate the anxiety caused by the obsessions. Depression, on the other hand, is a disease with symptoms including persistent emotions of worthlessness, sadness, lethargy and loss of appetite. As such, it is clear that there is a distinction between the two forms of illnesses which the show has failed to point out.

After the diagnosis, Hailan was taken home to recuperate. While at home, her condition took a turn for the worst and she was haunted by hallucinations, taunting her for her inability to study and perform academically. Hence, it seems that in addition to her suffering from obsessive compulsive behaviour as well as the initial diagnosis of depression, she has now developed schizophrenia. Evidently, she is suffering from three mental illnesses at the same time. It seems clear that the scriptwriters are simply picking and choosing symtoms at will without properly understanding the distinction between these three kinds of illnesses. In particular, they are confusing the symptoms of a common mental illness, depression with that of schizophrenia, one that is much more rare.

The government has been trying to remove the social stigma attached to mental illnesses, especially depression in our society. It has been encouraging people with depression to come out and seek the necessary treatment. However, the stigma of mental illnesses cannot be removed if the public is not educated on the different categories of mental illnesses and their symptoms. In the show, Hailan exploded into a confused barrage of symptoms which will only indicate to viewers that depression is synonmous with insanity as hallucinations are assumed to be common symptoms of depression. I believe that this misinformation will only prejudice viewers in their attitudes towards the depressed and discourage actual sufferers who are in need of help from coming forward,

As such, I hope that Mediacorp will pay more attention to the accurate portrayal of mental diseases in its serials.