Sen. Risa Hontiveros

When I was younger, I saw this film called “When a Man Loves a Woman.” Well, it was a love story, but the mental health struggles of that couple were at the center of that story.

When I grew up and became a legislator, I started to work with stakeholders and advocates of the mental health law. They were not just professionals, but also families of people with mental health concerns who’d been filing and faithfully refiling the bill for over a decade and a half and never ever stopped.

They were like that couple in the film. They cared so much for their family members or their patients who were in pain. Even in the moments when they were pessimistic or almost hopeless—like that man in the film towards his wife—they never, ever gave up. They never let go. So I think that was a continuing inspiration for me that led me to work with advocates and stakeholders who are now victorious in passing the mental health bill into law.

Before I started working in the Senate, about half a decade ago, I went through a very bad breakup. There was a point in that process, around Christmas time, where I just started to cry. When I arrived back at Akbayan Party Headquarters after a symposium with young people just like you, I suddenly felt so sad, so alone. Almost none of my kasamas were there. I had to call up one of my closest friends and talk to her on the phone, and she was the one who sort of came to my rescue. She couldn’t come to headquarters, but she sent some others over just to keep me company.

Working on the mental health law a few years later, I realized that though I’ve never been clinically diagnosed, at that moment I was probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But it was that friend of mine answering my call and talking to me that made me realize that—as all things and in some really intense ways with mental health—it’s just like the song says: we get by with a little, or a lot, of help from our friends.

- Sen. Risa Hontiveros

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