Mental illness, undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in small communities
What happens when we have some one in the family who is suffering from mental illness? For most of us, we haven’t experienced it so will not be able to understand what happened to Rinit.
The skeleton of a woman believed to be Rinit from Rumah Gawan in Pekan Siong was found near a forest in Rantau Panjang. Locals speculate that she was mentally unsound and probably died of starvation. She returned to her longhouse in February but was rejected by the residents because she was smelly and dirty. As a result, she took shelter in an abandoned hut near the forest.
In small communities, every one works as a team and has to conform to a certain code of conduct. Anything out of the norm in unacceptable. Add to that the spectre of ignorance over mental health issues, the future was bleak indeed for Rinit
my sister is one of them, since everyone is crazy these days, i they all began to accept them. but mom still ban me from using the word ’siao’ at home…