Actors Nonie and Shamaine Buencamino, who lost their daughter Julia to suicide a couple of years ago, stressed there is a remedy for mental illness.
The Buencaminos, together with Dr. Kenneth Javate, a psychiatry senior fellow-in-training at The Medical City, were featured speakers at “Engaged Talks: Mental Health,” a discussion on psychological and emotional wellbeing, held recently at the School of Design and Arts (SDA) at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB).
Javate explained there are numerous misconceptions about the issue, which have prevented depressed people from seeking medical assistance: “People say it’s just a form of sadness. That’s a form of fake news.”
He highlighted that these illnesses are just as serious as other ailments, like cancer. Depression, anxiety, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are considered to be brain-based sicknesses.
“When you are ill with depression, you cannot function well,” Javate said, adding that
symptoms like shortness of breath and weight loss can seriously impair a person’s productivity.
While it can affect almost anyone, he said medical treatment could help a patient cope with this condition.
Shamaine said they were not aware of Julia’s mental state only until after her death. A doctor studied her daughter’s drawings and journals, and they manifested her suicidal tendencies. Her daughter was diagnosed to have had borderline personality disorder.
“We were totally blindsided. We didn’t expect that it was happening. We were thinking, ‘Why did we not notice the signs? Why couldn’t we see the signs?’ She seemed normal and happy,” she expressed in tears.
She admitted that having high IQ and EQ levels enabled her daughter to hide her unhealthy condition. In fact, before her daughter’s death, Julia had already queued her blog for later posting.
The couple emphasized that the stigma against mental illness should be stopped. To conclude, she gave sound advice to those in the audience who might be undergoing their own mental troubles: “If you’re just ill, there’s a cure for that.”