An experienced educator and cognitive behavioural therapist, Minal founded OCD & Anxiety Support Hong Kong to provide much-needed aid to people battling with mental health issues
Minal Mahtani was in the midst of a successful teaching career when she went through her personal experience with anxiety. She was in her late 20s when she lost three extended members of her family within a short period of time. “I started to experience panic attacks,” she recalls. “And I really didn’t know what was happening to me. Family members wanted me to snap out of it and told me that death was just a part of life, but I couldn’t.”
After going through a process of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)— a transforming experience that pushed her to become a cognitive behaviour therapist herself—Minal was determined to investigate how anxiety cases were being treated, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds in Hong Kong.
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“Here, 71 percent of people who go see doctors for mental health issues get given medication, whereas only 6.7 percent actually get psychotherapy or a type of therapy suited for their anxiety disorder,” she says.
“In the public health system, if someone needed help, that person would have to be screened by a government doctor, and need to wait anywhere between 18 to 24 months to get an appointment. In that time, if your anxiety disorder is severe, you could have already have taken your life.”
Her experience with anxiety, and knowing that she could help, led Minal to start OCD & Anxiety Support Hong Kong in 2014, giving individuals with anxiety disorder and OCD have a place to get support and connect with people who have similar experiences.