Saiko

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

"do you believe in psychology?"

a friend of mine was asked this question when she was with her team.

yes everyone,

i am currently doing my Psychiatry rotation,

for the last few weeks of my 4th year in Medicine, Alhamdulillah :)

*******

we were at the kitchen table, discussing the things we had for the day; whatever was thrown our way, be it questions from consultants, interesting patients, interesting cases.

back to the question, so it was a rather interesting one i'd say. asking if we actually believe in such a thing called psychotherapy. psychology; what is it actually? Mr Wiki defines it as study of mental changes and behaviour. so how far do we believe that there is such a thing as a therapy for the mind? if we were to go through the list of mental problems, there would be associated therapies that can be offered, ranging from the usual consultations, to taking drugs and to having wires attached to your brain.

so again, do we believe in such a thing called psychology?

******

and interestingly my friend answered no; she doesn't believe in this. 

"that's why Islam taught us about moderation in the Quran and Sunnah."

that was her answer. no worries people, i believe we are all entitled to our own opinions. 

and so long one's opinion does not contradict Allah's Words, 

i think we should all welcome differing opinions. ngeee~

********

moderation

somewhat i believe that her answer is true. seems like to a certain extent, all this mental issues  boils down to the fact that we might have slipped outside of the boundaries of moderation. yes, we can be sad. but letting ourselves be too sad may lead to depression. yes, we can be happy. but letting ourselves be too happy leads to mania. yes we can be both happy and sad, but being in the extremes will then lead to bipolar. seems simple enough. but truth is, these things happened in a much more complex way, and it definitely does not take a day or two.

but the concept of moderation that Islam taught us is definitely something that we should keep in mind. because it's through moderation that Allah reminds us to be in control of whatever that happens in our lives, be it a happy or a sad occasion. Quran and Sunnah taught us to keep Dunya in our hands and Hereafter in our Hearts, because more often that we hoped for, Dunya always takes something away from us.

but saying all these doesn't mean that for those who have problems are at fault. 

"awak yang lebih-lebih, sebab tu awak sakit." 

oh no. 

again, these psychiatric problems doesn't happen in a day or two, and it certainly doesn't happen because of a single trigger, but a whole bunch of them; neglect in family, too much stress at school, friends who are not really friends, not having enough to survive the day, well the list goes on. often enough, we easily come to conclusions without trying to put ourselves in their shoes. say i saw some boys who do not perform solat and they were playing cards all throughout the day. while we'd often easily give the good-old-sigh... "budak-budak zaman sekarang~~", but in actual fact they have been brought up in a home where all they care about is "kais pagi makan pagi", along with parents who do not perform the daily prayer themselves, not to mention having left school at Standard 6 with limited exposure to ad-Deen. now, who is to be blamed here? *huhu*

so anyhow, back to our point, i am not saying that those who have these disorders are just because they have stepped out of the boundaries of moderation. i'm sure with all my heart that they too wondered at how things have gotten out of their grasps. but do not worry, having lost it once does not mean you will lose it again, it all comes back to how willing you are to fight through this ordeal, fight through your emotions, fight through your own thoughts; fight, till you are able to step back into the safe circle of moderation. it might be a harder path for those with these fluctuating disorders, but that should not be a hindering factor, since the harder it is, the greater the bounty is for sure, and Allah is ever the Watchful.

okay, truth is, i don't know what i am trying to explain here but i just did. it's been quite interesting for me lately to see things that are definitely unfamiliar to me. and to be able to listen to stories of people that you can only hear of in the movies. you thought that they exaggerated but truth is, they exist and it's definitely not an easy path to be in; just the more reason for us to be thankful isn't it?

wallahua'lam.

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ps: medicine is truly awesome. 

doakan kami :)

mind rant #17: Doa Chenta

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

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"ehm..ehm.. bila nak makan nasi minyak?"

i was texting a friend of mine. asked her the question. saja nak sakat.

"insyaAllah..raya nanti majlis akad nikah. hehehe."

erk~ *pengsan*

betul rupanya.

here comes another wedding invitation. and this is already the umpteenth secret wedding-waiting-to-be-revealed-at-the-last-minute-before-the-real-day that i know of. i can only wonder at how many invitations i'll be getting by June. 

*******

and as always these kinds of things would trigger people like me to look at pretty wedding stuff. i used to really really like watching those cute wedding videos. but as time goes by, i found myself feeling empty watching all the lavish things portrayed in there; as the videos no longer show the start of a beautiful marriage, but just another video of a wedding reception. baju, kasut, pelamin, hantaran, pengantin keluar kereta; same old, same old. i lost interest.

but then i found a wedding video of brother Hilal Asyraf and his beauuutiful wife. :) 

(credits goes to the ever awesome Umar Mita.)

while most wedding videos make you feel rather empty;

i guess special ones make you rather teary.

:')

girls like me usually ended up going "aww" to things like this.

and whenever we see beautiful sweet couples out there,
i'm definitely sure one would definitely lift up their hands to make that special doa.

but instead of the usual 'reflex' doa that we make:

"ya Allah, kurniakan kami cinta orang yang soleh."

i'd opt for this doa instead;

ya Allah 

kurniakan kami CintaMu.

kurniakan kami CintaMu

kurniakan kami CintaMu

it's much more straight-forward isn't it?
and it keeps us back on track insyaAllah.
because it's not his love that we're searching for,
it's His Love.

so selamat berDoa dearies.

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ سَيَجْعَلُ لَهُمُ الرَّحْمَٰنُ وُدًّا

"Sesungguhnya orang-orang yang beriman dan beramal saleh, 

kelak Allah Yang Maha Pemurah akan menanamkan dalam (hati) mereka rasa kasih sayang."

[19:96]

Comparison

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

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WhatsApp and Wechat. the two new apps that are used by mostly everyone who have the privilege of using smartphones. so through these apps, i would keep in touch with my besties back in Malaysia. due to the time difference of 7 hours and our somewhat 'busy' lives, we all find it hard to find the right time for us to chat or text one another at the exact same time. even if we do, it'll always be rather brief ones where either one of us ended up falling asleep, or heading off to the office/hospital.

so most of the time, when i'm going to bed, i'd find myself scrolling the very long chats that my bestfriends had without me, or listening to the whining they make via WeChat. i would amuse myself listening to their dilemmas in buying or cooking dinner, or how they are stuck in the traffic, or how early they've woken up that day and occasionally (or maybe a little more? heh ) it'd be the guy-issues of not finding mr Right. haha. yes, i am afraid we're the normal human beings who's reaching the sensitive age of 24 where all makcik would ask the same question over and over again, "dah ada orang ke?" =,=''

anyhow, so the voice message would mostly be funny ones that cracked me up most of the time, but one night she left me one message that hit that tiny little fragile thing called, Heart:

"semalam macam malu sangat kat Allah.

sebab selalu mintak benda duniawi je.

tapi kalau bab akhirat macam minta permudah urusan ke..

minta doa yang tu macam nak tak nak je. 

so i had a good cry lah.."

(*note: the original dialogue was purely in Kelate)

it was a rather random voice message from her as she continued talking about something else afterwards. but little did she know how these random things she tell me would affect me so much, cause i ended up replaying this message over and over again.

********

the truth is, it might be a personal message, but i believe it represents most if not all of us. it represents a mistake that we often make, and often neglect. the fact that we  spend most of the time praying for so many things that stays in Dunya and only in Dunya. 

let us think back, to the times when we were able to wake up so early in the morning during our exam week, just because we wanted to pray Tahajud and Hajat for the exam papers that we will be facing. or the time when we were able to cry our heart out, doing Istikharah wishing that Allah would cure our broken hearts and helping us find our Mr Right at the right time, the right place etc. amazing isn't it, the amount of time and energy we were able to spend to make those doa, and how pure our hearts were while making those doa. 

but whenever we prayed for iman yang bertambah, dijauhkan dari api neraka, dikurniakan Husnul Khatimah, diikhlaskan amalan kita, kata-kata kita, niat hati kita, praying for His Redha fi Dunya wal Akhirah; i wondered how much tears came with this doa? how much hope did we put in Allah at that time? were we able to wake up for Qiam just to pray for our akhirah? did we pray for our akhirah as much as we pray for our worldly affairs?

or were all of these doa just another daily recitals, 

that slipped out of our mouth so many times 

without even touching our Hearts?

astaghfirullah.

astaghfirullah.

astaghfirullah.

wallahua'lam. 

this is definitely a harsh reminder to myself first and foremost. T__T 

and as much as i pray that Allah keeps me reminded, i'd pray that we'd all be reminded of the same thing;
that the World just don't last.

يَا قَوْمِ إِنَّمَا هَٰذِهِ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا مَتَاعٌ وَإِنَّ الْآخِرَةَ هِيَ دَارُ الْقَرَارِ

"Hai kaumku, sesungguhnya kehidupan dunia ini hanyalah kesenangan (sementara) 

dan sesungguhnya akhirat itulah negeri yang kekal."

[40:39]

and i end today's thought with an awesome quote from another dear friend:

"....we probably have less than a century 

to prepare for a life of eternity."