Understanding the Barriers to Seeking Help Among Youths

Link to Article: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/in-focus-young-people-mental-health-singapore-treatment-613566

Kevin* has known his mind “works differently” ever since he was in Secondary 3. Things like grocery shopping may be therapeutic for some, but it is an incredibly stressful task for him.

“It’s always the difficulty of choice in making the simplest decisions, like what kind of pasta should I buy? I can take 15 minutes just standing there before deciding which to buy,” he said.

Kevin did not know then that he had anxiety, which can interfere with decision-making. What he was familiar with, though, was the common refrain that he would hear from people around him urging him to stop worrying and thinking too much.

He went on with life struggling with not feeling “fully normal”. It was another 13 years before he stepped into his first therapy session.

“It took me quite a while to say that I wanted to seek help,” said Kevin, who is now 29 years old.

“People always think that it’s (mental illness) just a phase, until it becomes too serious...I don’t want to eventually (commit suicide).”

Statistics from the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS) last week showed that the number of suicides in Singapore for those aged in their 20s remained the highest last year compared to those in other age groups.

A total of 71 people aged between 20 and 29 killed themselves in 2019. Suicide continued to be the leading cause of death for those aged 10 to 29 last year.

While Kevin took the first step to seek help after a long struggle, not everyone does so.

According to a Singapore Mental Health Study conducted in 2016, while one in seven in Singapore has experienced a mental disorder in their lifetime, more than three-quarters did not seek any professional help.

Respondents cited a “treatment gap” of 11 years as the median time between when they first experienced symptoms and when they sought help for obsessive compulsive disorder.

It was four years for bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse, two years for generalised anxiety disorder and one year for major depressive disorder.

In the same study, youths between 18 to 34 years were presented as the most vulnerable group - one in five would have experienced a mental disorder in their lifetime.

In Singapore, there is a comprehensive network of mental health services - from helplines and Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) offering youth-centric counselling services, to clinics at government hospitals and in private practice.

However, some young people experience challenges in seeking professional help.