Pastors and church leaders want to spark more conversations about faith and wellbeing amid the country’s stressful education system.
Regina Hum was an 18-year-old student at Singapore Polytechnic when she began experiencing symptoms of depression.
“I started withdrawing from friends and family, feeling no need to share with them what I was feeling, and they also did not seem to notice,” said Hum, who worships at Faith Community Baptist Church. “Waking up feeling there was no purpose, having a sense of dread whenever I got up … It was unusual since I had finally started my dream arts course.”
An adult she trusted had once told her that if she was experiencing mental health problems, she would be treated differently by society. As a result, Hum did not tell anyone what she was going through for fear of being ostracized.
Hum’s experience of mental health struggles is an increasingly common one in Singapore. Students often contend with their mental health and well-being in an extremely competitive, success-oriented climate, which is often defined by clinching high academic results in nationwide exams like the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) and pre-university exams like the “O”, “N”, and “A” levels.
And while academic stress can cause an adverse impact on mental health, conversations about the latter are rare in the Southeast Asian country and, until recently, even rarer in churches.
Many youth feel like they have to live a “victorious Christian life” to be accepted in church as “blessings and successes are celebrated, but failures, struggles in faith, and doubts about God are usually shunned,” said Wei Hao Ho, who led a nationwide study that identified and discussed generational gaps in churches.
Nearly nine out of ten (86%) Singaporean …
