Barriers to Seeking Counseling in Malaysia

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Barriers to Seeking Counseling in Malaysia

Over the years, mental health issues have been constantly on the rise around the world, including Malaysia. Statistics showed that one-third of our population age 16 and above is experiencing various mental health disorders such as depression (The Sun Daily, 2016). However, many of us take our mental health for granted although similar care and attention should be given to it as much as it is to our physical body. When we fall sick, we will visit the general practitioner for advice or to get the right medication to treat the symptoms we experienced. This could be rather easy or a spontaneous action for us but this might not be true when it comes to our mental health.

Adapted from http://www.rappspharmacy.com/

Seeking professional help such as counseling can be difficult for many of us. It may take us days, months or even years to make a deliberate decision before we could step out with courage to get the help we need. Have we ever wondered why is that so? Well, the culture that we live in has pretty much taught us to live in harmony with others in order to avoid shame, ‘save face’ and to live collectively as members of our society. We learned these values almost as soon as we learn to talk or very early in our lives.

Adapted from http://godisnowhere.co.uk/

Living in an Asian culture, we embraced the fact that we will not disclose any negative and private matters to strangers except to our own family members for the fear of bringing shame and despise to our own family. Similarly, counseling requires us to disclose our personal feelings and personal matters that causes emotional disturbances to a trained counselor, who is so-called a ‘stranger’. Therefore, the question whether to seek help or not to seek help arises. The fear of being stigmatized and discriminated by the people around us or being labelled as being ‘crazy’ or ‘psycho’ become more significant to us. We become more self-conscious in our decision-making and perhaps lead us to a crossroad whereby we experience more distress. We would not even weigh the benefits of self-disclosure which counseling requires although we know that too much of self-concealment would lead us to too much pain and despair in the long-term.

Adapted from https://www.sunshinecoasthealthcentre.ca/

Statistics has revealed that Malaysian young adults committing suicide due to depression had increased this year, which is very much alarming to many of us (Muthiah, 2016) and this has indeed created fears and concerns among counselors especially those who are based in colleges or universities.

University students tend to experience higher level of distress and are more likely to develop mental health problems compared to others because of the overwhelming stress they experience mainly from the new environment and education they are in (Stewart-Brown et al., 2000) which can ultimately put their psychological and physical resources to test (Wittenberg & Norcross, 2001).

Adapted from http://mileswelch.com/

In other words, although university students are constantly looking for independence, they are also gripped with the fear of the unknown when they are being required to step out from their comfort zones, especially when they have to leave their home, family and close friends to pursue their tertiary education. However, living in an Asia country like Malaysia and bound by the cultural values and stigma attached to help-seeking, past studies had revealed that seeking professional psychological help such as counseling can be difficult (Cheng, McDermott, & Lopez, 2015; Salim, 2010).