[[Blog Index]] ## Post Trip Reflection. Hi, When I was in Bangkok, I had the chance to talk to my Thai friends there. We caught up and shared what we had learned in the last two years. One of the themes for me is about being aware and choosing for ourselves whether we need to subscribe to what society (aka other people) script of how we should live. Our conversations cover various topics such as relationships, sexuality, view of ourselves, the standard of living and work-life. One of the friends shared about the class divide in society. In Singapore, most of the people are middle class, while it exists, but the need to compare is less prominent. The gap may be bigger in Bangkok; just the street outside a fancy hotel, there may be homelessness. Perhaps with social media, people can instantly see how their peers live. (Although we know that we often just post the most glamorous shots of ourselves). So this is about self-identity, who I am, and how I want to be perceived by others. I imagine the pressure faced by young people today must be tremendous. I think that creates lots of stress and unhappiness if we (unconsciously) compare ourselves with others and believe that we must live a certain way. Lots of expectations are placed upon ourselves. Says who? Who said that we must live in any particular way? One of the themes for me is about being aware and choosing for ourselves whether we need to subscribe to what society (aka other people) script of how we should live. People have to survive and organise themselves into societies. These unique societies are organised differently depending on their geographical environment, social-political arrangements and history. As such, these complex and usually unseen, complex dynamic forces exert pressure on the different parts of this system, and sometimes, perhaps a particular group/sector/class of society gets the most of the stress (?like in machines, engineering? - so how to alleviate pressure/stress points?). This reminds me of the cultural dimensions of psychopathology; about psychopathology present differently in a different culture? Does patient psychopathology present itself differently in Singapore and Bangkok? What similarities or differences between patients in different cities? I am curious, what kind of problems do patients in other cities presents? Moses