Mental illness remains taboo in the Philippines, but technology might just help break the stigma
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by Tammy Danan
How do you talk about something when you’re surrounded with people who don’t really believe in it? For many Filipinos, social media has become a safe space for self-expression.
The Global Economy reported that the Philippines was the second happiest country in Southeast Asia in 2021. So why is it that the Philippine World Health Organization said that 3.6 million Filipinos suffer from at least one type of mental, neurological, or substance use disorder?
Mental health remains taboo in the Philippines, which is why suicide rates continue to rise — suicide attempts among youth in the country more than doubled between 2013 and 2021. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, then 23-year-old Steph Naval founded Empath, a company that aims to improve the mental well-being of Filipinos by providing easier access to mental health services. Through social media, Empath is slowly breaking the stigma surrounding mental health by talking about it, providing relevant information, and using their social platforms to be a safe space for people to practice openness and vulnerability.
Kenny Tai
The Philippine culture’s toll on mental health
It’s not that the country isn’t paying attention, it’s just that the culture still generally has a closed-off attitude toward mental health. Filipinos are known to be smiling people. We are resilient. We smile through problems, we power through, and we have this resounding motto, “laban lang” — or “fight on.” This isn’t exactly a bad thing. But behind that, there is this culture of rigid privacy, especially when it comes to our emotions and mental health.
“We still try to keep things private within ourselves,” says Rich de Jesus, clinical divisions head for Empath. De Jesus has been in the field for 13 years now, working as a clinical psychologist and registered psychometrician. He notes how self-expression is only in its infancy in the Philippines and that it still needs a lot of work. Because of this, Filipinos are often not keen on sharing what stresses them out, how they’re feeling about their job, the sense of unhappiness or lack of passion for life, and the many other states of mind and mood that they think would portray them as weak.
De Jesus adds that family is still the main unit here in the Philippines and “in our culture, upholding the honor of one’s family is of prime importance. That’s why you have mothers trying to push their children to have degrees that are worth being proud of. So it’s either we become doctors or lawyers or engineers because this is something that, for them, is worth being expressed outside of the family. It brings honor to the family.”
While bringing honor to family certainly might be a good thing, the pressure can take a toll on mental health (and any given family’s pushes might not be in the right direction for the individual). Filipinos are actively choosing not to talk about anxiety and depression because it could carry a “sudden whiff of weakness,” as De Jesus describes it. And in a traditional Filipino family unit, the belief that “people who have mental illness are weak and incapable of handling what challenges life has given them,” as De Jesus puts it, prevails.
Access to services is next to none
“If there’s a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being we’re there, the Philippines is just around 1.5 to 2,” says De Jesus when asked about the availability and access to mental health services in the Philippines. “Support by the government is needed,” he states. The thing about mental health in the Philippines is that it doesn’t seem to be a priority. “They say there is now a Mental Health Law, but I’m telling you, if you go to a local health center, no one will be there to talk to you about your mental health. The nurse can accommodate you, but I don’t think these nurses have sufficient training to give certain kinds of counseling.”
The good thing is that advocacy work continues. De Jesus shares that there are now organizations that provide free counseling and crisis mitigation sessions for those who want to commit suicide. “I think we still need to go through the burdening pains of developing psychology as an institution that helps in nation-building,” he says, but positively notes that, “We are planting the seeds. But it still needs to take time in order for it to grow.”
Kenny Tai
Technology and its central role
In a place where something is often seen as nothing, or that it’s ‘just in your mind’ or perhaps something you simply have to ‘power through,’ self-expression — much less seeking help — becomes a huge challenge. Today, however, more and more Filipinos are taking advantage of technology and the internet.
There’s a growing number of advocacy groups that are on Facebook and Instagram showing how vulnerability and not being OK aren’t such bad things. Provincial health offices are slowly embracing technology and sharing their work on social media. Social media is not all positive, but it’s something better than being in a totally closed-off society.
“I think social media is a blessing and a curse, depending on where you find yourself trying to talk about it,” says TalkLife COO Jennifer Russell. “There's something that we talk about in suicide and self-harm research called the online disinhibition effect. And it’s that when you go online and you’re anonymous, you feel a lot more able to start talking about things. You feel more able to say ‘actually, this is how I feel, this is how I’m really doing’ because you’re not scared of the repercussions,” she details, adding, “it gives people the courage to start talking about things.”
Needless to say, De Jesus iterates that nothing can replace the human ear and the human brain and how it processes your concerns. “If we use technology as a medium then ‘check!’ it’s a very vital tool. But it should be under the use of the right hands that can make the most out of it,” he says, adding, “It should be led by people who are licensed, regulated, who know what they’re doing, and most importantly, who have a care for the human person.” “It’s one thing to read something that you could do from an app, and it’s another thing to have someone guide you in the process.”
Today, the Philippines still has a long way to go when it comes to mental wellness and how it is affecting the nation as a whole. Russell notes that when it comes to mental illness, “there is a very real stigma and very real consequence of telling somebody how you’re actually doing, so we don’t do it.” She continues on by saying that these consequences change depending on “whether suicide is illegal in your country or not, whether you might be signed off for work or lose your job if your employer realizes that you’re battling self-harm or anxiety attacks.”
While suicide isn’t mentioned in the Philippine’s Penal Code, Filipinos could really use a society more open and accepting of conversations relating to mental health. And social media, as well as various apps, are helping to make that shift happen. Next step: it would be great if the government will take it seriously.