Posted by cubbybear on September 18, 2003, at 2:18:17
In reply to Re: Nardil is pooping out...need advice and support » Bob » cubbybear, posted by Bob on September 18, 2003, at 1:03:29
What you say is "right on"-- mental illness is definitely stigmatized here, and I read that mental health care workers are given funny looks when they talk about their work. The ratio of psychiatrists to patients (existing patients and those in need) is extremely wide. The whole situation reflects the cultural fact of life here that "problems" don't exist, and if they do, they should be ignored and they'll go away by themselves. God knows how many Thais I've met would benefit from counseling of some sort, although few would ever admit it. Although I can speak the language halfway fluently, I've found time and again that the language barrier rears its ugly head whenever I found myself in any kind of emergency medical situation, whether it was food poisoning or severe depression and panic. Fortunately,the therapist I had been seeing for nearly a year was fairly fluent in English, but even then, the differences between his conception of an emergency and mine was so so different that it caused me a great deal of confusion and disillusionment. When he ultimately decided to rush me through a Klonopin withdrawal program rather than a (necessary) gradual phaseout, this was the cue for me to bail out--it was the Thai way of saying, "I don't want to deal with you and your problems any more." I'll have to stop here and get back to work. Good talking to you.
poster:cubbybear
thread:260460
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030917/msgs/261257.html