Having lost friends to suicide and gone through her own struggles with bipolar disorder, Sabrina Ooi started the Calm Collective to encourage more people to talk about mental health issues. Here, she shares how we can break the taboo
Sabrina Ooi will never forget the period when she battled depression. “I experienced depressive episodes several times from 11 years old to my early twenties,” shares the Singaporean entrepreneur, who started mental health platform Calm Collective Asia. “I hit my lowest low in 2016 after being triggered by several stressful events like financial difficulties, loneliness and the death anniversary of a close friend.”
Unable to find the mental health support she needed, she began to feel isolated and even considered suicide. “Devoid of hope and support, I went to the 20th floor of a nearby building, hung my legs off the ledge and contemplated death,” Ooi recalls. “While I sat, a passerby called the police and they came by. At that time, attempted suicide was still considered an offence in Singapore, so off to jail I went… but that’s a story for another time.”
The incident alarmed her parents, who helped her to find the support she needed. For the three years after, she focused on getting better through regular therapy sessions and daily medication. She also made sure to have a regular sleep schedule and practised meditation and yoga.
With time, Ooi's condition improved and in 2019, she recalls “finally being able to hold down a regular job in the software industry, while dabbling in DJing on the side and taking care of my own personal needs—rent, insurance, food”. She also came to a realisation that she wanted to help others by sharing her own knowledge and experiences with mental illness, in order to destigmatise the matter in Singapore.
Partnering up with two of her friends, Alyssa Reinos and Luqman Mohamed, she started Calm Collective, a social enterprise that aims to normalise mental health conversations in Asia through relatable and accessible talks and events online. The platform works closely with a diverse range of people to create its content, from mental health professionals and individuals like Ooi with lived experience of mental health conditions, to influential leaders and personalities from industries such as media and entertainment who believe in the cause.
Ooi shares more about her journey running the social enterprise and how we can normalise talking about mental health here.