Mental Health Of Expats

[rooseveltbaur]

"If possible and affordable, the ones needing such mental health medications should make the necessary efforts to identify and look for the the best and latest medications ever invented and available to best serve their respective health care interests."

Well, my opinion is that why should one choose or insist on taking the inferior and outdated medications whilst in fact there are far better alternatives available to them at the same time ?

Edited November 3, 2009 by rooseveltbaur

[heykki]

I've been living here for over a year and been very happy so far. I have to disagree with previous posters about the difficulty of making meaningful relationships. Absolutely not true, or I have just met the right people? I have several Thai males as "friends", well, haven't known them long enough to establish anything meaningful but still.. My experiences have been all positive, without people are in it for the money.

[DegenFarang]

Personally I am much happier here and have much less stress than I do in the States. Depression and anxiety can be brought about by some of the things you have mentioned, but no moreso than they can back home, at least for me.

There do seem to be a lot of suicides in Thailand related to women though. Thai women tend to be less faithful than western women (generally speaking - and I'll grant that men here are also less faithful than they are back home, generally speaking) and once some men figure this out, it can cause a lot of trauma, depression, stress etc. I'd say this typically occurs most in the first 1-2 years in Thailand, if you make it that long you usually know the ropes and are less susceptable to falling into a mental cotastrophe of some sort.

For anybody seeking professional mental help in Thailand, don't think that the quality here is poor - much like the quality of regular medical treatment here, it is top notch, you just have to know where to go. Manoram Hospital in Bang Na is a first rate private mental health facility with 100% fluent english speaking psychiatrists on staff.

[CrossBones]

Thailand is a good place for western men. Men are still free to be men. We dont sit in silly offices pressing buttons and doing a meaningless job, or work as part of some big company lost in part of the big machine, lost sight of who we are and what we are doing and why. Life in Thailand is real we are real men, we go out, we party, we hunt gather, wheel and deal and shag women. We live close to nature. We have lots of girlfriends and feel happy. The people we meet are happy, they smile, this makes us smile and life is good.

I cant for the life of me understand why farangs want to live in some crappy condo in Bangkok. If you like Bangkok go and live in HK or SG!!. Bangkok is like a western city only its a shit hole. Its hard to make friends there.

For me Thailand is all about being close to nature and enjoying myself, i am respectful to the locals and have many Thai friends who I love more than my own family.

Go and live in the country side and have regular trips to BKK Pattaya, islands etc!! Life is great!

[Nio]

As far as mental health, there have been quite a few roof top and balcony divers over the years that were way beyond any mental health help. God only knows what pushed them to the edge but there is evidence there of some mental health issues.

I agree with one poster that the married guys in the country seem to be the happiest bunch. They all seem to share the same values and can be friends same as in their own country. They are pretty much in the same mold, settling down with a good woman that lets them do their thing.

The Bangkok and Pattaya bar girl chasers are the most in denial about their issues. Be real, if you fit into this category and live in a bar, it is easy to find others like you but to classify this as friendship is quite a stretch. Co-dependancy is more like it.

Married farangs adhore the bar girl chasers and will never be friends for obvious reasons. One is that the married group has respect for Thai women for the most part and can see them as wives and mothers, where the chasers can only see a piece of tail and have no respect for thai women in general.

Why married farangs have no friends?

Once you get married and have kids, you don't have enough time in the day to even sleep, let alone have friends.

Married people are just to dam_n busy being married. Kids to school, work, work meetings, school activities, school sport, family visits, inlaws, not much time for friends in there.

I also agree city farangs and country farangs are a mile apart

Most of the deadbeat rule breakers are in the cities around farangtown, the ones that follow all the rules seem to be far removed from the city.

Did you see the bangkokpost where 100,000 farangs in Isaan contributing US $5 billion to the Thai economy annually?

Without the stigmitism of whore chasers and drunks, farangs would have enough influence armed with these monetary facts (recently conducted by a local university) to get VISA laws, land ownership and other issues turned in our favor.

The mental health challenge is with the drunks and whoremongers and that is the last group that would ever admit to have a problem

If you need to flame this, hurry up and do it fast. I have to take a hel_l of a pee and have enough to douse the flames right away

[thunder30101]

No not need to study this too much, people that are messed up in the head back home are the same here or anywhere else they decide to land.

[loquent]

I'm quite okay, but I love my hospital Job in Bumungrad.

Read the T-shirt. Pattaya where mis-fits fit. People you don't want to sit next to, listen to, or mix with. Social skills of a cornered rat. Braeth to match. Whether it's mental health issues or just plain weird, nasty, obnoxious or recently released - who cares? The guy's got prison Tats; it's time to go home.

Then there's the guy's who survive, escape, never wanted, saw through that 'You sexy man' scene. Pretty ordinary types who actually had a first love other than a motorcycle, weren't abused or abusers, held down a job, been married, grew cynical, became selfish enough to think 'it's my time now'. And here they are, pumping money into a dirt poor family, giving some comfort and hope to the next generation. Because the Thai Gov, is a failed state when it comes to social welfare, pensions and education.

So a modest Euro or stateside pension alleviates that poverty. Where's any health issue - mental or physical involved with that feel good factor? Mugs who gave big to Oxfam for years believing they were doing their bit to ease world poverty only to find it was banked, sat on, withheld forever and a day, achieved nothing. Twenty years of Music conferences to feed the world never solved anything.

The DIY kit, move to Esan and spend it, invest it in the family farm, put your money where their mouth is, actually sees results. Tangible, visible, remove poverty overnight, measurable results. Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa and the average Joe who moved to Ban Nowhere can stand together in the difference they made. Although I'm beginning to doubt Mother T; OK she was a good person, but all that time bent on her knees never put rice in a paddy or a kid's mouths or flip flops on their feet.

And yet there's the issue. The mental health issue because to be philanthropic you've got to be mad; eccentric, a multi-millionnaire: Getty, Rockafeller, Gates. Really? Back to Mother T again; no pockets in shrouds.

Back to the cynical. You've got to cut through the crap the Tv spews, the selfish materialism and go out and make a difference. Take the acquired knowledge and experience of a lifetime and turn it into a life line for the under educated, under-priveldged that this country produces and abandons without hope in its millions. These women manage 4 languages all self taught. Future Medical Consultants and University Dons are left to cut casavar or sell themselves on the streets becaus etheir is no other option. No education.

We don't marry, co-habit, meet lonely self made hi-sos dreaming of life with a man whose langauge they can't speak while waiting to fill up their BMWs at the gas staions. We meet 'last chance saloon' desperate ex-housewife's who grab the chance life throws them. As we all do. Ex-housewife's as Thai man has abandoned them when they fell pregnant.

Picking up the pieces of broken lives on a scale we can barely imagine is something with a cool head we are good at. The steadying hand to guide an inadequate life, condemned through nothing other than simply being born into abject poverty, upwards and onwards.

Now if anything were a cure for rat race living, mindless striving and a pointless existence manufacturing widgets for GM then this can be it. It's also a a guarantee for manageable stress filled / free living.

Mental? Sure! I should have done it years ago.Health? Never felt better! Mad? You've got to be.

[zzaa09]

Well I can see how people could be sad here. I find Bangkok to be the loneliest place on earth. Hard for most of you to imagine I know. If you don't like hookers and would like to make real friends it is a very sad place. The level of racism and negativity towards falangs makes it hard to meet and befriend people, the ones that are interested in befriending you land up becoming a liability and/or want money. The answer I guess is to meet Thai people that don't need money but then that goes back to the racism issue which is very real, most of them dont want to be friends with a falang. If you want to make friends with other falangs you need to be careful as it seems like everyone that lives here has some sort of psychological issue or they themselves are scared to make friends with other falangs as they think the same thing about you. I assume men that sit around pubs drinking all day and then sleeping with hookers all get along fine together but if that is not your cup of tea it is hard to find people you can relate to of any nationality in this city.

Those who have these deeper senses of discontent and predisposed conditions probably shouldn't insist on a life here. Plenty of the world to satisfy.

[zzaa09]

If you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs and blaming you...then Mr. Kipling does make exceedingly good cakes.

The burden....

[zzaa09]

I venture that members of hard drinking cliques find refuge in such gatherings because they lack social skills, and from my observation, very low IQ's. Birds of a feather? Do they deliberately go out of their way to make themselves so inattractive? Some of the barladies must surely blench when in close contact.

This will naturally fall on deaf ears, Sweet Talker. Nice try, even if it won't be understood.

[RakJungTorlae]

just the other day i walked into a dentist's office and said, " Can you help me? I think I'm a moth."

The dentist said, "You don't need a dentist. You need a psychiatrist."

"Yes, I know," I replied

The dentist asked, "So then why did you come in here?"

I replied , "The light was on."

[TheAceFace]

Its been touched upon before, people come here looking for the "good life" get ripped lose everything they had....I love you long time and all that....No wonder their heads gone. Its a shame but unfortunatley reality here. If your not strong you will not last simple as. Its harsh yes. But that is reality....would you behave the same in your home country..I think not. Pattaya is not the dreamland you may think.

I live here as do many others and have known and lost friends due to mental issues (all manifested here, due to beer and false promises), sad but unfortunatley its a reality that is all to common here. Those people on this road need help and not predudice.