"Yesterday, upon the stair,

I met a man who wasn’t there

He wasn’t there again today – "

-An Excerpt from Antigonish by Hughes Mearns

 

My mother once told me to look for things using my eyes, not with my mouth. Pretty good advice, and yes, I always find the things that I am looking for using my eyes.

 

But will you still call it finding if it’s not missing?

 

It was two days before Christmas, everybody was busy looking for great presents, finding good food for Noche Buena and some are searching for their Ninongs and Ninang. During this season everybody is looking for something, but for the Pilicarpio Family they were searching for something more important than all these; their daughter, Ica Policarpio or as I call her the Girl who wasn’t there.

 

All social media accounts exploded with Ica Policarpio Missing, big stars shared this post hoping to give the Pilicarpio family a Merry Christmas. Everyone can sympathize with the family because we all experienced losing someone. I must say that the family of Ica used the best platform for searching. Social Media can spread news like a virus, it went viral and now everybody online mobilized with one mission; to Find Ica Policarpio.

 

And yes, everyone was successful in finding her because two days later she found her way home through the help of good people and social media user’s mobilization.

 

But the real problem occurred after she was found, now people who helped her through social media wanted to know the reason behind Ica’s disappearance. After the family asking for privacy they said in their official statement that it was “deep emotional distress” that prompted Ica to leave home.

 

Let me emphasize “Deep emotional distress” that is more bothering than any reason why a teenager will leave home and disappear two days before Christmas. 

 

Dr. Lourdes Ignacio of the University of Philippines, College of Medicine Professor, said in October that one in every three Filipino is experiencing mental health problem.

 

After Ica’s disappearance went viral over social media I hope that the number of likes, shares, and comments will equate to the number of people who will be aware of mental health stigma in our country. If we will just realize how people united in one mission using an influential platform can find a missing girl in just two days, I hope we will also use the same platform to stop the stigma and spread awareness to people all over the country that Mental Health Problem is enough reason for a teenage girl who has a loving parent a financially stable family to leave her home.

 

Everyone can be a victim of depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and a lot more. But in our country, it seems like these mental health problems are just an addition to our myth and legends. We are so not into it that whenever someone said that she went missing because of emotional distress we tend to make up stories saying that Ica being missing was just a prank or it was a part of 48-hour challenge or worse she was just asking for attention.

 

It makes me sad on how hard it is for us to understand that there are some things that you just can’t see by merely looking through your eyes.

 

My mother once told me to look for things using my eyes, not with my mouth. But now I realized that it is not only through the eyes where you can find the things that you are missing.

 

Maybe, Ica has been missing years ago but nobody noticed it, not even her own family and maybe just maybe being missing was Ica’s way of finding something that’s been missing for a very long time. I hope that one day, Ica Policarpio will be able to find the girl who wasn’t there anymore.

 

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