Mental health

When I was 16, a classmate jumped from a building and ended her life. The younger me, along with all my classmates, could never fathom what went through her mind to make that decision. She was the funny one, the clown of the class.

Mental health issues are real. In the past three months alone, I have personally known two people whose mental anguish pushed them to end their lives — souls in disarray, leaving behind a world in disarray.

Through my years of counseling sessions, I have sat with parents and partners who have lost loved ones to suicide. The shock they experience is not only grief; it is the cold discovery that someone they loved was carrying a deep anguish that either went unseen or could not be healed.

In a culture that layers everything, sorrows are often buried beneath the smiles of everyday life and societal norms that dictate saying things are OK, even when nothing is OK.

I would like to share these recent statistics on mental health, as they offer a sobering look at what our society is quietly living with:

According to the World Health Organization’s 2025 report, more than one billion people — roughly one in eight globally — are living with mental health disorders. Anxiety and depressive disorders are the most common, disproportionately affecting women. Over 332 million people suffer from depression. Tragically, 720,000 people die by suicide every year, making it the third leading cause of death among 15- to 29-year-olds. Among the youth, one in seven adolescents faces a mental health condition.

Despite this, a significant care gap remains. Investment has stagnated at an average of just two percent of health budgets since 2017, and the global median is a mere 13 mental health workers per 100,000 people — with far fewer in poorer countries. Still, there is some progress: Over 80 percent of countries now offer mental health and psychosocial support in emergency responses, up from 39 percent in 2020. Above all, the WHO stresses one vital truth: suicide is preventable.

Soul in turmoil

Esoterically, a soul in turmoil is often a soul that has lost its witnesses. It is a soul that retreats into isolation, keeping its pain hidden deep within a closed room. Whether dealing with depression or its extreme end-of-life manifestation through suicide, the mind battles itself behind the bars of a mental jail. I have seen how loved ones anguish as they try to reach out across this abyss of alienation. Some have been successful when that door was reopened; others have not, leading to the devastating grief that follows a suicide.

There is also the esoteric belief system — present in Hermetic, Vedic and Buddhist teachings — that we are in the school of life. Under this view, our souls enter the curriculum of life by choice so we can evolve and grow, carrying a past-life history of pain, wounds and lessons. Upon entering the physical body, the soul processes these lessons through the personality (the “I” as we know ourselves), expressing itself through the traditions, norms, and relationships of society.

Therefore, when a soul chooses to end its life, it is the experience of life that ends, but not the lesson itself. Sometimes, the lesson is the unresolved pain, which does not disappear in death but is instead carried forward.

This free-will choice to end one’s life remains embedded in the soul. In the reincarnation belief system, that soul will return to this earth to heal and further evolve. In Christian traditions, there is an urgent need to intensify prayers for the soul that has passed on. From a dimensional perspective, the soul may remain stuck in its mental state on one dimensional level, rather than ascending to higher frequencies and moving toward the Light.

Depth psychology identifies a hidden confusion in this dynamic. The soul in anguish, or someone contemplating suicide, truly wants to end an identity — a specific role they play in this lifetime — not life itself. But when the anguish becomes too deep, the wish to die is misread; it is actually the soul’s desperate call for transformation.

In the Catholic tradition, St. John of the Cross writes beautifully of the “dark night of the soul,” which is about the stripping away of the ego to push through to the beyond. I remember reading this book when I was 21, and I have seen the profound depth of its message validated through my years of counseling.

Seasons of intensity

The path is through… not out.

In astrology, we see these periods of crushing pressure through the transits of Saturn (isolation, heaviness, weight), Neptune (dissolution, loss of footing, confusion), Pluto (forced death and rebirth) and Chiron (the deep, existential soul wound). These planets describe seasons of intensity, not permanent destinies. No astrological chart ever shows who will or won’t take their life, as those remain free-will decisions. However, studying these planetary combinations can help us understand the pressure points in our own life patterns.

I have also seen that such heavy transits ALWAYS PASS, and they are best survived in the company of true friends, loved ones and healers — if you are willing to seek them out. Whichever way we look at it, it remains the soul’s choice, a personal decision for how their life and destiny should unfold.

There is another critical angle to mental health conditions: the biological and physiological factors. Elements like bipolar disorders, genetics, brain chemistry, and mood regulation contribute significantly to periods of severe depression. Recognizing this biological angle as a potential cause of suicide is incredibly important, especially for those in a person’s support system.

Likewise, we are seeing our youth today struggling with mental health issues as they lose their connection to the self, trying hard to define their identity in a world that often makes little sense. A disconnection from faith occurs because they question what they should anchor themselves to — God, life, or their own inner worth — and alienation sets in. Social media exacerbates this, creating an illusion of connection while leaving people feeling unseen, isolated, and disconnected from their authentic selves.

Back to the light

The main lesson I have learned over the years is this: we must be willing to sit longer at someone’s table, to ask a second or even a third time if they are truly okay, and to hold those who are too tired to hold themselves. We must support people in being authentically who they are. The spirit of our times demands deep evolution, transformation and healing in all aspects of our lives. Suicide can be prevented if we remain aware of the early signs and catch our loved ones with deep compassion, guiding them back to the light.

To help foster this awareness and healing, we invite you to join our upcoming activities for the Mental Health Weekend at YSpace at the Yuchengco Museum. It starts 9 October with “You are Home” with mental health champions Kim Atienza and Riyan Portuguez. On 10 October, the Living Library sessions will be facilitated by Mental HealthPH at 10 a.m., and Inner Odyssey led by Stephanie Zubiri of Soulfulfeasts at 4:30 p.m. On 11 October, there will be music by Diwa, where singing and choir music brings healing at 2 p.m. For more information, check IG and FB pages of @yspaceattheyuchengcomuseum and let’s continue the vital conversation on how to support ourselves and each other.