More than just ‘down in the dumps’: Hongkongers urged to understand depth of depression
Consultant quit her job with a leading bank and founded a wellness consultancy after suffering a mental breakdown while on the job in Tokyo
Hongkongers must understand the seriousness of depression before the city’s mental health crisis can be solved, a Hong Kong-born consultant has said.
Enoch Li, a former international executive at one of the world’s largest banks who suffered a mental breakdown while working in Tokyo in 2009, said the city’s ongoing battle with depression and a rising youth suicide rate was partly due to a misunderstanding of mental illness.
The 36-year-old founder of wellness consultancy Bearapy said she did not think families were prepared to have frank discussions about depression.
“A lot of people in Hong Kong don’t understand the gravity of mental health issues,” she said.
“They do not understand that it can lead to death. And there is a sense that suicide is a selfish thing to do. This is a misunderstanding of the rationality of it. Before my breakdown, I was doing yoga and going out to dinner and I thought I was OK, but when the doctor recommended that I see a psychologist, I said I visualised myself drowning in a bathtub. That is when I was told I had severe clinical depression.”
The mother of one who also now runs well-being workshops for large companies, said she also felt the city’s schools were producing young adults who were too preoccupied with their jobs.