Beware Of Old Folks’ Mental Health (寿星公吊颈)

Maybe this has nothing to do with spirit possessions and it is a case of mental issues. There is a Chinese saying that goes:

“寿星公吊颈，嫌命长。”

“A longevity old man hang himself… complaining living too long.”

Below is just a case that illustrated the above point:

 

I have just received a call from a friend from down south that his mother just ‘jumped off from 2^nd floor’ from his apartment. In another words, his 70 year old yet physically healthy mom just attempted to ‘committed suicide’ in JB. This poor old lady was found ‘missing’ for quite some time and she was only found lying helplessly downstairs with fractured limbs still with some breathe left. Finally an ambulance is called. I think it will be a long ugly drag until this old lady takes her final breath.

 

I have personally met and talked to this lady and she constantly complaints of her body pains everywhere though the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with her after some extensive and expensive diagnostic sessions. The last time when I visited my pal and this old lady complaint to me that she was old and helpless and it is better to die than to live; it only stroke me as she might have some mental issues that warrants for a further diagnosis.

 

As recalled by my friend, his mom asked him a very funny question before he left for work but he didn’t heed the hidden meaning behind this question:

 

“Would I die if I jump down from 2^nd floor?”

 

Before this suicidal incident, this old lady did try to climb out from my friend’s front gate for no obvious reasons. It was only aftermath that we realized his mom may have some kind of mental illness.

 

It appeared that in Malaysia, there are only a few hundreds of qualified psychiatrists. Had we found out the problems earlier, only then perhaps this kind of unfortunate incidents can be avoided. But how many people especially those professionals have the time to just sit down and talk to their old folks and pick up those deadly telltale signs and to seek early treatment?

 

I have seen many hardworking old folks don’t have proper hobbies or interests; they are merely working machines. Once they stop working, they are likely to feel that they become useless and to die is the only option. Perhaps it is our responsibility to lead our old pa and old ma to find some interests in life. Having said so, how many people in Singapore and Malaysia have the time just to sit down with the old folks and talk to them every day? Maybe I attribute that this is a cause that we really need to look into or it shall be our turn pretty soon.