SHE is a cute young girl. If you have met her outside, you would think she is normal.

Yes, she was born normal but a bout of high fever in her early teens affected her mental health. Now, she is staying at the Sentosa Hospital not because she is violent or harmful to others — it’s to prevent her from falling prey to sexual ‘opportunists’.

Still in her teens, she looks quite normal during my tour to the ward, and probably the youngest and prettiest female patient around. It’s hard to imagine she is but one of the roughly 12 per cent of the total population with mental problems.

Mental illnesses touch our lives in more ways than one. Some have bipolar disorder … some borderline personality disorder. In fact, mental illnesses of some forms affect people worldwide. Malaysia is no exception.

The latest survey on national mobility says 16 out of 100 people are suffering various forms of mental problems in Malaysia. About one to two per cent of Sarawak’s total population is affected by serious mental problems such as schizophrenia, and about 10 per cent suffer from milder forms such as bipolar disorder, serious mental retardation and dementia, according to Sentosa Hospital director Dr Rajinder Singh.

Probably a fifth of the state’s population will be affected by a mental health issue while even more will have contact with someone who has had or will have one in the future.

Mental illnesses will probably touch everyone’s life at one time or another and is something lots of families live with in silence for fear of judgement.

But why is there such a stigma in this day and age?

There’s one thing to bear in mind — never say words like gila, crazy, cuckoo, psycho, wacko and nutso in the presence of people with a mental issue. These are just a few examples of words that keep the stigma of mental illness alive.

They belittle and offend the mentally ill although many of us may use them without intending any harm.

Just as we won’t mock someone for having a physical illness like cancer or heart disease, so shouldn’t we poke fun at someone with a mental illness.

Dr Rajinder openly laments society tends to view those affected by a mental illness in a negative light.

The most common presumption about the mentally ill, especially schizophrenics, is that such an affliction is incurable, and the afflicted are unpredictable, dangerous, violent and infectious with their craziness.

Other perceptions are they cannot make rational decisions for themselves and should not be taken seriously and that mental illnesses are the result of character flaws or a weak will.

These negative stereotypes are omnipresent and frequently grounded in ignorance and equating the person with his or her illness. The result is the afflicted are often labelled as insane or ‘gila’.

“Those with mental problems are often at a disadvantage in the search for living quarters and jobs. If their social circle finds out about the illness, people tend to distance themselves,” Dr Rajinder said.

Many agree. The social status of psychiatric patients is far lower than that of former criminals. There are cases where those previously under psychiatric treatment are socially less accepted than former prisoners even after five years of normal life and regular work.

Out of the stigmatisation grows discrimination within society that expresses itself in various ways — from a tendency to avoid giving work to a person with a mental illness to social exclusion.

It’s easy to understand that stigmatisation makes it twice as difficult to reintegrate socially. Even without the stigma, it’s not easy to deal with the illness and learn to accept it. Through stigmatisation and discrimination, more obstacles are placed in the way.

The signal from the numerous rejections in public and private is that ‘we don’t want you here like that’ — a message that can deeply injure or drive into isolation even a healthy and mentally stable person.

The consequences of stigmatisation are problems getting housing and unemployment, and social isolation. Most serious are the effects on the progression of the illness. Prejudices and fears are generated by myths, and myths are generated by ignorance.

“The anti-stigma programme intends to contribute to the fight against discrimination and a reduction in the stigmatisation of the mental problem,” Dr Rajinder said.

He believed by bringing scientifically rooted information into public awareness, especially among families, prejudices could be diminished.

“Through these means, the chances for mentally ill and healthy people living together in a stress and trouble-free way can be achieved — which, in the end, not only promotes social reintegration but also the mental healing of the afflicted person.”

He added that the stigma associated with mental illness needed to be stopped, suggesting that it could start with everyone … such as parents teaching their kids to accept one more thing about life and what is out there.

“People with a mental illness have enough trouble with day to day life without also having to deal with the stigma attached to it.”

Dr Rajinder also pointed out that people with mental disorders were frequently not described accurately or realistically by the general public as well as in the media.

Movies, television and books often present people with mental illnesses as dangerous or unstable. News stories sometimes highlight mental illnesses to create a sensation even if the mental illnesses are not relevant to the story.

“A person with a serious mental illness may be highly unusual, atypical, and you can see this. But if you think about how many thousands of mental patients we have, and how few — may be two, three — make violent headlines each year, it should not generate myths.

“And just because a very small population creates problem, people shouldn’t generalise that all the mentally ill are dangerous or violent,” Dr Rajinder said.

He added that most mentally ill street people are disorganised, agitated and hallucinatory only because they had not been given medication or care.

“If these people had a system of routine, constant care in the community, most could improve and function reasonably well,” he said.

How much do you know about mental illnesses? Are people with mental illnesses violent and dangerous?

“The truth is that, as a group, mentally ill people are no more violent than any other group. In fact, they are far more likely to be the victims themselves,” Dr Rajinder pointed out.

He said more often than not, mentally ill people were being assaulted, abused, mistreated and ridiculed by so-called normal people.

“People don’t like them because they loiter around, pick rubbish or eat their food without paying … they are desperate because they are rejected by their families and have no place to stay … they pick rubbish because they have no food to eat … they are dirty because they have no place to wash and no cloth to change.

“That’s part of their illness and habit but they are harmless. They do all that because they are not well. But if they are treated properly and regularly, they improve very fast and may be able to become normal,” he added.

Dr Rajinder stressed that treatment was very important, saying for the past 10 to 15 years, great advancement had been made in treating mental patients.

He said now many could go about their normal daily life due to effective treatment.

“Although chronic mental illnesses could not be cured, they could be easily and speedily treated and controlled with medication. But patients must continue with their medication.

“No doubt, the milder cases can be cured, and some may not need any treatment such as in depression, anxiety and stress related illnesses,” he said.

Indeed, all of us can help with the way people think about mental illnesses. Be careful about our own choice of words. Use accurate and sensible words when talking about people with mental illnesses. Our positive attitude can affect everyone with whom we have contact.

Try influencing all the people in our lives constructively. Whenever we hear people say things that show they do not really understand mental illnesses, use the opportunity to share with them some of the information that we have.

We have already changed the way we refer to women, people of colour and people with physical disabilities. Why stop there?