One of my resolutions for the New Year is undoubtedly to read more books. And my problem with that has always been with ones written by professionals.
They often become too technical and boring – leaving you with the frustrating urge to reach for the dictionary in each sentence.
Recently, however, I came across a wonderful new book without any of that nonsense. It is written by Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj and will be launched next month.
Dr Mohanraj is an internationally and locally recognised psychiatrist. His book, called “Battling Adversity”, is a collection of 41 essays on mental health and society.
It takes a fresh, interesting and timely approach into the conscious and subconscious psychological elements in many events happening around us today.
What I like most about the book is the author's ability to take readers through the difficult, and often uncomfortable and even scary subject of mental illness.
He dispels the false notion that mental illness only affects some people by making us realise the issue touches virtually every aspect of our everyday lives and needs to be dealt with rather than be ignored.
Mental problems and illness can affect every one of us at any time. And there are those who are already affected but don't know that they are.
Instead of the stereotyped images of persons in mental wards or someone acting bizarrely in the streets, Dr Mohanraj points out that mental health problems can start to take shape with the death of a close one, for instance, or when financial problems occur.
Work stress, divorce and even moving to a new place can also be other factors.
The modest book with 132 pages sets out on its mission in presenting a holistic understanding of mental illness.
The opening chapter focuses on the tantalising and elusive quest to look younger through age-defying treatments by unscrupulous cosmetic surgeries which are never ending.
Though they may provide comfort for patients, it is only temporary if a person's self esteem issue is not addressed.
Suicide and the reasons of its recent rise in the country is also discussed in the book. Other topics include paraphilia or bizarre sexual behaviour like paedophilia and exhibitionism created much interest early last year, the tragedy of MH370 and the psychological impact on the families of the victims to road bullies in our society.
Dr Mohanraj presents an interesting take on the latter – educating readers on something called, “Intermittent Explosive Disorder”.
Aviation mental health, women and drug addiction and school mental health are more topics readers will find interesting in the book.
My particular favourite was the issue of stigma and discrimination suffered by those with chronic mental illness. These are eloquently explored in the author's collection of essays – a subject which is obviously close to Dr Mohanraj as well from the way he wrote it.
An extraordinary feature to look out for in the book is the author's collection of notes as a post disaster psychiatrist for three years working in the tsunami stricken districts of Aceh, Indonesia where a 140-thousand lives were lost within a wink of an eye.
This is included in the second last chapter of the book called, “Diary of a Disaster Psychiatrist”.
Dr Mohanraj tells of the harrowing true life stories of how a mother had to snatch her children and run for their lives to escape the killer waves and to how people lost their children forever to the sea waters.
On the whole, Battling Adversity is a delightful source of information which makes you think, rethink and revalue things about life.
It's a godsend for those who know little or nothing about mental illness. It also serves as a "reset button" for anyone – until now – whom have had wrong ideas about it.
The author gently and carefully takes the reader deeper and deeper into what mental illness is all about.
It's easy reading for the most part. There are helpful points to problems with some quick and simple solutions to take for those who find themselves caught up in some of the situations.
For those of us who are uncomfortable with the topic of mental illness, it's the perfect book to take away with you to do some private reading in order to educate ourselves before deciding on the next step to take, like consulting a professional in the field.
Battling Adversities is clearly not a book that offers solutions to psychological problems but rather an explanation of why things happen (with a psychological twist) around us.
The only problem I had with the book is that it is far too short and sorely deserves a sequel.
The book is published by Yayasan Tun Suffian. It is being sold in Peninsular Malaysia for RM20 and RM30 in Sabah and Sarawak.
For more information, email Pacifica Publications. – January 18, 2016.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
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