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Q: Why are mental illnesses taboo in China?
Over 17% of all Chinese suffer from some form of mental illness (according to 2009 medical journal The Lancet) and there are supposedly only 17,000 certified psychologists, and even less psychiatrists.
I've read stories of patients being diagnosed with some form of mental illness being put back on the street due to lack of funding/care/money and then going on to commit some atrocious murder. In the newspapers, they rarely mention mental illnesses.
Where does the stigma come from? Why is it taboo? Why are there so few doctors? You would think such a profession would be both intellectually and financially rewarding...
12 years 38 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
The stigma or belief many Chinese have, or so I hear, is that they believe if you hang around crazy people all day, you will, in turn, also become crazy. It's incredibly simplistic, but social pressure has attached this kind of label to the profession.
The other thing to keep in mind is that many truly crazy/sick people are denied treatment for the reasons you mentioned, while others are given treatment when they in fact don't need them. Some people are put into mental institutions as retribution for land disputes, etc...
I think mental health is not really strictly seen as a medical issue just yet in China, but more often confused as a problem of social stability. Why would law enforcement be so tightly involved in cases of mental illnesses? They go hand in hand with health departments...
Cons:
- negative stigma from people around you
- numerous years of study
- very stressful
- pay not as good as in the West.
Just isn't worth it. Face and image would probably be the number one factor, though.
I think what you say is true. There is stigma. I think it's strange job. But good job. But people around maybe thing you weird for this, so rumors fly. It's sad.
For some reason, mental illnesses in China are stigmatized, and consider to be quite a loss of "face" for those ill, as well as their family members. Even if those consider to be mentally ill are not really legally responsible for their actions, some of those actions could be quite harmful and repulsive for many, like attacks on children at grammar schools, etc.
There are not, unfortunately, many places that will treat mental illnesses in China. And to me, too much emphasis is placed on drugs and not enough on counseling on a one to one basis. Besides, treatment could be quite expensive for Chinese standards, a 6 weeks stay at a local Mental Hospital cost a friend of mine over 12,000 Rmb, plus medicines to cure him run at 700 to 1500 Rmb per month, depending on number of attacks. It did surprised me to see that a name brand foreign medicine (Prosac) was 35 Rmb per pill, whine a local generic substitute was less than 5 Rmb, but totally useless if taken.
In regards to depression, and including suicidal thoughts, I feel that pier pressure on young ones at school to do well on exams to determine to which school they will be allowed to apply next to further their education, does bear a lot of "guilt" for the large number of youth affected. Maybe is a combination of "face" and lack of maturity, but I do know kids 13 years of age with clear cases of acute depression and suicidal thoughts. Yet, no one around me seems concerned with this, it is totally ignored. It has become a very sad subject for me.
