View of SOCIETIES PERCEPTION: UNDERSTANDING OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER AS MENTAL ILLNESS THROUGH MOTION GRAPHIC PSA

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International Journal of Social Science Research eISSN: 2710-6276 | Vol. 2, No. 3, September 2020

http://myjms.moe.gov.my/index.php/ijssr

SOCIETIES PERCEPTION: UNDERSTANDING OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER AS MENTAL ILLNESS THROUGH

MOTION GRAPHIC PSA

Norhasheila Muharam^1*, Nora Edrina Sahharil², Aimi Nabila Anizaim³,Nelysa Nurshafira Mohd Roslan⁴and Irzatul Nadia Submin@Sahmin⁵

1 2 3 4 5 Faculty of Film, Theatre and Animation, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Shah Alam, Selangor, MALAYSIA

*Corresponding author: norhasheila@uitm.edu.my

Article Information:

Article history:

Received date : 6 August.2020 Revised date : 19 August.2020 Accepted date : 20 August 2020 Published date : 1 September 2020

To cite this document:

Muharam, N., Sahharil, N., Anizaim, A., Mohd Roslan, N., & Submin@Sahmin, I.

(2020). SOCIETIES PERCEPTION:

UNDERSTANDING OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER AS MENTAL ILLNESS THROUGH MOTION GRAPHIC PSA. International Journal Of Social Science Research, 2(3), 112-125.

Abstract: Public service announcements are designed to create awareness around the community regarding issues that are concerning and alarming. In Malaysia, the use of Public Service Announcement (PSA) have become a part of an urban vernacular from moving billboards to distributing flyers to broadcasting on television and social media. It is common to see the topics on Public Service Announcements (PSA) circulating in Malaysia are relatively similar from environmental issues to portraying mannerism and educating a proper lifestyle. However, mental health issues are in need of special attention and enforcement from the local authorities. As we can see that this mental health issue is become alarming among teenagers and children. Although society are more comfortable with speaking about mental illness, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is still commonly misinterpreted. Often when someone uses the term OCD openly, they are using it in a wrong interpretation. The disorder is popularly mistaken as referring something a certain way for wanting basic control of situations like the cleanliness of the room or how organize your personal belonging are. It’s true that these traits can be a part of OCD symptoms, but they are just a small part. The methods that will be used is through reading journals, articles, newspaper, and case studies through related Public Service Announcements (PSA) and our priority topic, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Even though mental health issues such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has not reached critical level in Malaysia,

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1. Introduction

There are many different types of mental illness that are recognized in Malaysia such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and other. This research paper will cover the issues on OCD in Malaysia through case studies on Malaysian animation.

2. OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Malaysia

It is recognized that the influences of media have a psychological development in children’s behavior and upbringing. In Malaysia, according to a report made in Kosmo from 2018, it was reported that mental health issues are on the rise and is expected to be Malaysia’s second most alarming health problem in the year 2020, after heart problems. According to the National Health and Morbidity Survey, Ministry of Health Malaysia, 3 out 10 adults aged from 16 and above suffers from mental health problem. Unfortunately, Malaysian’s society are still unable to understand about the cause and symptoms of the early stage on mental health. There are many different types of mental illness that are recognized in Malaysia such as anxiety disorders, mood disorders, post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and other.

This research paper will cover the issues on OCD in Malaysia through case studies on Malaysian animation. Martine and David (Flament, 2005) defines OCD by the presence of obsessions and compulsions. Obsession that comes in unwanted, intrusive thoughts images or urges. They are persistent and experienced as intrusive, inappropriate and distressing, and that are not simply excessive worries about realistic problems. Compulsions are behaviour an individual engages in attempts according to a rigidly applied rule to get rid of the obsessions and decrease his or her distress or to prevent some dreaded outcome. Most individuals with OCD do not want to have these thoughts and often find them to be disturbing and distracting. They also noticed that these kinds of thoughts are unnecessary. A public service announcement (PSA) is a noncommercial advertisement, that typically broadcasts on social media or television intended to publish an issue of relevance or interest to the public. The most common topic of Public Service Awareness was health issues. In this paper, public service announcements (PSAs) about Obsessive Compulsive it is important for us to highlight this matter in the early stage. With these methods, we will highlight the importance of Malaysian to accept this issue as one of mental illness. From the findings and case studies, the execution of this paper had been transferred through a communicative strategy for public knowledge by using motion graphic as a Public Service Announcements (PSA) to emphasize this mental health issue. Creating awareness can help to educate the society because everyone is responsible to accept the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as a mental health illness.

Keywords: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Mental Health Awareness; Motion Graphic; Characteristic.

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Disorder (OCD) through animation is one of our method to represent our approach in the hopes of creating awareness in Malaysia.

This project-based research is conducted to find way on how animation could help to visualising the awareness of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder symptoms to children in Malaysia. In article written by Adam (2014), this mental health disorder could affect all types of people of age. Patients of this mental disorder are recorded to have obsessive and repetitive behaviour. Martine and David (Flament, 2005) defines OCD as, obsession that comes in unwanted, intrusive thoughts images or urges while compulsion is behaviour an individual engages in attempts according to a rigidly applied rule to get rid of the obsessions and decrease their distress or to prevent some dreaded outcome. They are described as often persistent and distressing for the bearer, to the point it became annoyance and disturbing their daily life. Some of the symptoms such as intense and uncomfortable feelings towards dirty and unorganized things are severe enough to caused marked distress or interfere significantly with the person’s normal routine, usual social activities, or relationships as brought by the ICD-10 (World Health Organization, 1992). There are few mentions in articles that children could have obsessional thoughts in their minds or doing repetitive behaviours, these patterns of actions does not occasionally cause distress or impair with their daily functions, well, until they did that is. The symptoms of OCD have let its presence known since childhood and has been documented in various cultures, reported by psychiatrists from all over the world. The obvious symptoms of OCD in children as such as fears of dirt and germs, danger to self or loved ones, obsession with symmetry, religiosity, and the major rituals of washing hands, repeating, checking, touching, counting, ordering, and hoarding.

In pasts researches, Malaysia has neither more nor less common knowledge about OCD in children. This fact has been proven through researching the articles written by Rosario (2013), Senaphathy (2016), and Klass (2017). They also mentioned since most parents tends to tell their children that OCD was just a “phase” and it will get over sooner or later. Since there are lacks of education on mental health issues, the symptom of OCD mostly went unnoticed and being taken lightly by society. Lacks of knowledge on these matters caused people to be ignorant and unaware of the possible dreaded outcome that will befall on them if this mental illness continued to be brushed off. The aim for this research is that by showing the animated PSA, we will be able to raise awareness of the symptoms of OCD to children to help them understand more about the importance of mental illness.

Previous research showed that for children, obsessive compulsive disorder is characterized by obsession and compulsions that take up at least an hour a day. To cope with the obsessions, OCD sufferer devises processes or action called compulsions, or rituals. These rituals are observable in some cases, as in a child washes their hands excessively or checks locks for extensive periods of time. Some of these rituals can’t be seen with naked eyes, such as the child is saying a prayer mentally to prevent something terrible from happening. These kinds of acts make the child feel calm, but it is only temporary. Certain children with OCD may be unable to specify the dread event that the compulsive rituals are intended to prevent; beyond a vague premonition of something bad might happening to them. Many cases of OCD went undiagnosed because people who suffered from this illness do not know it was treatable condition. Children and adolescents with OCD may hide their symptoms, or will only allow showing them at home or in presents of close family

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members (Flament, 2005). However, most of neither them, the parents of OCD children are reluctant to seek help or can’t accept that their offspring’s have a mental illness condition.

Previous studies have shown there are several ways on how to detect the symptoms of OCD among children but some of the causes may differ depends on countries and how they approach these problems. Furthermore, treatments for OCD is limited by proper reporting and diagnosis, as it takes an average of 7-10 years for a patient to seek for help and treatment they needed, mostly because of the lack of approach of the problem itself. Why children in Malaysia do seem to be lack of awareness about the symptoms of OCD? This happened because these children are not exposed about the knowledge of OCD. Most of parents with OCD children are not aware about OCD, thus those children probably couldn’t refer to their own family about their problems out of embarrassment or cowardice. OCD can be mistaken as a quirk or other disorder as this mental illness does have lot of similarities with other disorder.

OCD in children is often being associated with other symptoms, which have important implications in regard to clinical assessment, differential diagnosis and treatment planning. Mood swings and anxiety disorder (Geller et sl., 1998 in Flament, M. F. and Cohen, D. 2005). Among anxiety disorder, overanxious and separation anxiety disorder the most frequent in children and panic and generalized anxiety disorder the most founded within the adolescent. There are also sayings that OCD can triggered anorexia nervosa and related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Tourette disorder. Anorexia nervosa had been reported in small portion of OCD adolescents when this disorder has been systematically assessed (Too et al., 1992 in Flament, M. F. and Cohen, D. 2005).

In order to support this research, by referring to animations such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by the Rosaryfilm, Out of Bounds by the Animation Workshop and I am Obsessive and Compulsive by ActuallyHappened; all of them are from Youtube channels resources. These short animations have the related qualities to the research and are suitable as reference in this study. This research will be using past researches and articles as reference materials and to analyse the efficiency of learning through animation for children.

3. Theoretical Framework

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4. Literature Reviews

4.1 Understanding of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (Rozario, 2013, Chung, 2018, and Fonagy, 2008)

Few documentaries and articles had been written and analysed about the understanding of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. However, Fonagy and Katayana’s views on OCD were a bit different from Prof Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj as both of them mentioned that OCD was triggered because of some sort of stress or traumatic life events. In an article written by Rozario (2012), OCD symptoms was stated as people who are unable to go outdoors because of fears of germs, or performing a certain ritual repeatedly such as touching furniture or checking the lights, hoping that their actions could avoid of having bad events from happening to them. However, children’s way of showing OCD tendencies is a little different as Katayana explain; for children to have OCD is like having them to be constantly asking for reassuring matters, or repeatedly washing hands until it eventually become overpowering and will disturb the child’s life. Prof Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj (Chung, 2018), stated that OCD has associated with fussiness or being a stickler, but it does not necessarily mean that if a person shares such similar characteristic they would be defined as obsessive compulsive disorder. Moreover, there are many individuals having some innate obsessive and compulsive, which are one of human unique quirks. Thus, diagnosis on OCD conducted only once the obsessions compulsions has cause marked distress and time consuming, to the point it interferes with one’s social and occupational functioning. Prof Datuk Dr Andrew argue that there’s many types of OCD, as the commonly found was the symptoms of obsession would be the fear or irrational disgust of dirt and contamination. He mentioned that there’s also the other lesser known obsessive symptoms could include unwanted sexual or blasphemous thoughts or even preoccupation with throwing away objects that are perceived to be useless, as shown in Fonagy (2008) case study of his patient, Glen. In Katayana (Rozario, 2013), she’d only mentioned that the bearer of OCD would have repetitive behaviour of washing hands and fear of dirt and germ. She does not necessarily think of other types of symptoms in obsessive compulsive disorder. The similar views that both of articles share are OCD can be a severe anxiety disorder that are triggered by a certain life events of the bearer.

4.2 Behavioural Inhibitions and Transgenerational Transmission (Manassis et. Al., 1997, Flament, M.F. and Cohen, D. 2005, Fonagy, 1999)

Behavioural inhibition is a temperamental trait defined by a relatively consistent pattern of behaviour and emotional responses to strangers and, novel stimuli and situations. In a study conducted by Muris (2010), behavioural inhibition are linked with anxiety disorder symptoms and psychopathological symptoms, on which may be developed from children’s insecure attachment, negative attachment, negative parenting styles, adverse life events, and parental anxiety. Reviews from Hirsh-Becker (2004, 2008a from Muris, 2008 in Flament, M. F. and Cohen, D. 2005) mentioned that a number of studies have shown increase prevalence of anxiety disorder among behaviourally inhibited children during the past 20 years. Generally, assumptions about anxiety disorder are the results of multiples variables and influences shown by the behaviourally inhibited children. However, this kind of behaviour may occur because it seems plausible to assume that behaviourally inhibited children are particularly prone to develop anxiety problems when experiencing with negative life events such as abusive household, being bullied at school, and

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receiving punishment/ detention. Biederman (1991 from Muris, 2011 in Flament, M. F. and Cohen, D. 2005) also stated that research has shown that children of parents with anxiety disorder are at greater risk for developing anxiety disorder themselves as them are the most vulnerable (Rosenbaum et. Al. 1992 from Muris, 2011 in Flament, M. F. and Cohen, D. 2005). Muris conclude that behavioural inhibition plays an important role in the development of anxiety problems in general, or a broad range of psychopathological symptoms. This may include the developments of obsessive disorder among children and adolescent. Compared to other study on behavioural inhibition, Reznick (1986 in Flament, M. F. and Cohen, D. 2005) argue that not all behaviourally inhibited children remain inhibited over the early childhood years, most of the ones that remain inhibited does not develop anxiety disorder necessarily.

In one of the studies conducted, behavioural inhibition has initially acted as a specific risk factor for the development of social anxiety symptoms. The longitudinal study has shown that behavioural inhibition additive as well as interactive effects for various vulnerability factors on the development of anxiety symptoms. Muris (2010) mentioned that, the main effects of anxious rearing and parental traits anxiety were found, where the behavioural inhibition and attachment had interactive effect on anxiety symptomatology. The behavioral inhibitions itself was said to influenced by some of the vulnerability factors the way it manifests in people’s mind. Kagan (Kagan et al. 1988; Kagan 1994) said that inhibited children typically respond with restraint, caution, and withdrawal to novel objects and situations, and normally behaves as timid, fearful, and shy with unfamiliar people. Behavioural inhibitions also show moderate chances of continuity during childhood and to a certain extent associated with aspects of adult personality. The three- year longitudinal study conducted by Biederman (1993) who has found out that, children that identified ad behavioural inhibited were subsequently more likely to develop anxiety disorders as compared to children who at study onset were not classified as behaviourally inhibited. However, in particular children with stable behavioural inhibitions are at risk for developing pathological anxiety.

Prior research suggest that Prof Datuk Dr Andrew Mohanraj has shared his ideas about OCD are the same as Fonagy (2008) views on transgenerational trauma. This is because, as stated in The Star Online, OCD can get worsen and became more severe when there is additional stress from the wearer, such as traumatic life events. He added, compulsive behaviour could be the manifestation of a desire for control after experiencing bad situation which were beyond their control in the past. One’s genetic make-up and environmental factors contribute to its development, also saying that genetic play a part as evidence by the fact that a person with OCD is more likely to have a family member with the same condition. In another similar study, Fonagy (1999) suggest a theory of adolescents with OCD developed from a transgenerational trauma. He mentioned that OCD could be transferred through traumatic events from the anxious caregivers to their infant. This study also proved that anxiety disorders could developed through familial bonds.

He proposed that the transmission of specific traumatic thoughts across generations may be mediate by vulnerability to dissociative states establish in the infant by frightened or frightening caregiving which is trauma-related. Fonagy (1999) said that it is possible to argue that trauma and deprivation were present in Glen’s childhood, but it remained hidden from the analyst and other therapists. He also wondered that why did holocaust experiences have such a uniquely traumatizing impact, to not only on the first victim but it follows to generations. Even for some of the best parents will failed to reflect the infant’s intentionality in moments of distress, and will

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then briefly undermined their feeling of being normal human, with individuality, thoughts and feelings that are normally turned into a meaningful psychic reality with the help of the caregiver.

4.3 Theories of the Causes of OCD: Biological and Cognitive-Behavioural Theories (Kelly, 2018)

There had been rumours about the origins and causes of OCD. However, there isn’t any solid proof about the main cause of this mental illness. Owen (Kelly, 2018) explained that a biological cause of OCD mainly focuses on a single circuit in the brain which is regulate the primitive region in our brains which is conveys our behaviours such as aggression, sexuality and bodily excretions. He quoted, “the circuit relays information from a part of our brain is called the orbitofrontal cortex to another area called the thalamus and includes other regions such as the caudate nucleus of the basal ganglia.” When this ingle circuit is being activated in our brain, this impulse is being brought to our immediate attention and causes us to perform a certain behaviour that appropriately acknowledges and ease the impulse. For example, we may start to wash our hands in order to remove any harmful germs we may have in contact with after using the restroom. Once we have completed the appropriate behaviour such as washing our hands, the impulse from this brain circuit lessen and we will stop washing hands and get through the day.

The idea of this mental illness is that if people have OCD, the brain has difficulty of shutting it down or ignoring the impulses caused by this impulse. Which it causes the body to have repetitive behaviours called compulsions and uncontrollable thoughts called obsessions. For instance, the brain may encounter some troubles shutting down the thoughts of contamination after leaving the restroom, leading the host to wash their hands repeatedly. In recent researches had found that obsessions and compulsions associated with OCD often have themes related to sexuality, aggression, and fears of contamination; the very thoughts and impulse this circuit controls.

Through neuroimaging studies, researchers have confirmed the abnormal activity in the brain circuit. People with OCD have shown abnormal activity in different part of the circuit including the orbital frontal cortex, cingulate cortex, p-o and caudate nucleus of the basal ganglia in their brain scan. Kelly also conclude that since many people with could respond to treatment with medications including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which is can be seen to boost neurochemical serotonin, it was suggested that perhaps the deregulation of this brain circuit may be related to a problem with the serotonin system. From Kelly (2018) theory on OCD caused from the biological aspect of a human, it was still unconfirmed from when and in what kind of situation that could be supporting the brain circuit to react to OCD.

There is also a type of OCD which prone people to have unwanted thoughts in their head. Most of people experiences bizarre or unexpected thoughts throughout the day. Looking through the cognitive-behavioural theories on OCD, OCD bearers are vulnerable to unwanted thoughts. Also, they may think that they should be able to control these bad thoughts because most of the time their thoughts are dangerous to them and others. OCD bearer would probably believe that they are losing their mind by having these thoughts or even worse, to actually carry out the imagined or feared behaviour. Since these kinds of thoughts were labelled as dangerous, the OCD bearer became extremely attentive and alert of their surroundings. For an OCD bearer, having themselves to constantly noticing these thoughts further could egging the risks of these thoughts. This sets up a never-ending cycle which would make a person trapped with these dangerous thoughts, to the

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point it became hard to focus on anything besides these upsetting thoughts and it became severe obsession. Compulsion habits such as washing hands or checking the switch may be a learned process. Washing hands could be caused by a response to feeling fear of contamination, and repeatedly checking the switch was because of feeling uncertainty. This kind of behaviour eases up the anxiety and thus encourages the ritual behavioural acts.

4.4 Learning through Animation: Influence and Effectiveness (Ainsworth, 2008 & Weitz, 2015)

According to Ainsworth (Ainsworth, 2008), one of the key innovations that educational technology has made available is new forms of representations, such as animation, multimedia, and virtual reality. She stated that to truly understand the way that different representation influence learning, people need to consider multiples interacting levels of explanation. She explained that animation is a form of flexible representation that display processes that change over time. Animations are used for variety of reasons across a whole range of topic including learning. This is because animations are believed to be able to help learners come to understand complex ideas more easily. She stated in her writings that there are few levels of explanation that focuses on the interaction between form of a representation and an individual’s capacities, knowledge, and skills. The levels are cognitive, perceptual, motor explanation, affective and motivational, strategic, and metacognitive, rhetorical explanations. However, she noticed that the first thing that is apparent from this discussion is that these levels are not independent from one another, as it can be precisely because of the properties of representation at one level, that their impact is felt at another. She also thought that animations may not be effective for all learners as some of them may not have the required skills to apply when learning using animation. Such situations may be common problems to encounter and this could help explain some of the very mixed results reported for effectiveness of animation for people.

In Effectiveness of Animation as a Learning Strategy in a Classical Control Theory Introductory Course (Weitz, 2015), Dario proposed that animation is an efficient tool for explaining theoretical definitions, underlying methodologies involved in diagrams constructions and computational procedures as described on a CCT introductory course. In this study, they’re using the current theories of multimedia learning and incorporated animation components in modules designed for teaching various educational contents. Thus, showing the result of this study and how animation has the potential to contribute to the learning and comprehension of several contents include in a CCT introductory course. Dario (2015) explained that animations are often used to improve student’s understanding of certain complex processes or abstract concepts that changes over time.

Using animations in teaching complex systems such as mechanical, biological, physical, operational and computational as they also had been used in natural sciences subjects to visualize scientific concepts and their relationships through abstract graphical representations (Esponda- Arguero, M., 2010, in Weitz, 2015). He also mentioned that animation had been used in software instruction for better understanding of algorithms and data structures. There are several studies examined the effectiveness of animation as a learning strategy and the result were contradictory because it shows that animation has significant advantages compared with the learning from static pictures (Hoffler, 2007 in Weitz, 2015) , but Tversky (Tversky, 2002 in Weitz, 2015) failed to find benefits of animation compared with equivalent static diagrams. There are some successful cases but in order to achieve that goal, it will require specific demands in student learning process

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because some of the students are unable to systematically process the material presented to them.

Therefore, Weitz said it is advisable to use the current theories of multimedia learning to assess a priori whether the subjects and contents of the course are suitable for using animation as a didactic tool. In other studies, as example, Tversky (Tversky, 2002 in Weitz, 2015) have shown that graphics, and particularly animations, can facilitate comprehension and learning only if they are appropriate and carefully designed, which is on this sense, visualization decodes and internalizes knowledge in a robust and efficient way. Based on a survey, Weitz claimed that students appeared to have better understanding of the course contents and they felt more engaged in the learning process. This study also conclude that animation is an efficient didactic tool for explanations and are able to enhances students’ understanding of the basic objectives in feedback control systems analysis and design, and facilitated the teaching methods used to determine the stability of feedback control systems.

Both of the studies agreed that animations are not necessarily compatible nor suitable for all people to be used in learning tool but it does help to better understanding of certain things such as complicated subjects. Ainsworth (2008) mentioned that interrelation and interdependence is problematic if people were to look for straightforward solution in learning with animation. She also proposed that how people can be certain that the explanation of a subject could have better effect if animation were too added as learning tool. However, Weitz (2015) argues that student appeared to have better understanding and they felt more engaged learning with animation.

4.5 Public Service Awareness through Mass Media

Raising awareness isn't an equivalent as telling people what they're alleged to do. It is explaining issues and providing knowledge in order that people can make their own, informed decisions.

There are two different areas that activities to boost awareness should cover. One is that the more general public awareness, which involves wide-spread acknowledgement and understanding of water issues. the opposite one is self-awareness, which suggests understanding the relation between personal water use and natural and societal impacts. associated with self-awareness, citizen science programs are often a fun way for the general public study and participate in monitoring their local water resources.

Mass media is communication whether written, broadcast, or spoken that reaches an outsized audience. This includes television, radio, advertising, movies, the web, newspapers, magazines, then forth.

Mass media may be a significant force in modern culture. Sociologists ask this as a mediated culture where media reflects and creates the culture. Communities and individuals are bombarded constantly with messages from a mess of sources including TV, billboards, and magazines, to call a couple of. These messages promote not only products, but moods, attitudes, and a way of what's and isn't important.

The internet has changed everything. Technology is a fantastic thing, and therefore the world wide web might arguably be one among the simplest inventions. It connects us, and better yet, informs us (most of the time). During this era, most individuals are on social media. It’s an excellent way for people to pass the time, stay connected, and obtain advertised to. The advertising industries

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know exactly what is needed by the consumers, making the promotional process easier to advertise (Self D. , 2017). We will access anything almost anywhere. Smartphones, tablets, laptops are all ways you'll access the web. It makes it easy for us to be advertised to in the least times, which may sometimes be annoying for the buyer if not wiped out the proper way. Yet for the advertiser, having unlimited access to place ads ahead of their ideal audience is great news.

Generally, all mass media organs altogether established societies are expected to satisfy certain responsibilities and these obviously would come with creating awareness and mobilizing public support towards governmental or public oriented programs. Television, as a mass media organ, is equally expected to satisfy these functions too. First of all, it might be necessary to elucidate what television as a medium of mass communication actually is. Mass communication comprises techniques by which specialized technological devices radio, television etc. to broadcast symbolic contents to large, varied and widely audience. The success of any government programed depends largely on the quantity of support it generates. Awareness and mobilization are not any doubt vital variables during this regard.

5. Results

Figure 1: Screenshot of our PSA video titled OCD PSA taken from https://youtu.be/Ozlc0VQamqs

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Figure 2: Screenshot of our PSA video titled OCD PSA taken from https://youtu.be/Ozlc0VQamqs

Figure 1 and Figure 2 are visuals taken from the animated video done after the information on the mental health are gathered. YouTube is an online video sharing platform where public users are allowed to upload, rate or share the videos published. This animated video focuses on creating awareness on the different types of OCD based on the nature of the symptoms experienced. First is cleaning and washing. If you are affected by this symptom subtype, you will usually focus on feelings of discomfort associated with contamination and wash or clean excessively to reduce these feelings of distress. Secondly, hoarding involves the collections of items that are judged to be of limited value by others such as old magazines, clothes, receipts, junk mails, notes or containers.

Thirdly, symmetry obsessions with ordering, arranging, and counting compulsions. There are also obsessions without visible compulsions. This symptom subtype often relates to unwanted obsessions surrounding sexual, religious, or aggressive themes. If a person experiences this symptom subtype, they will often have intense thoughts related to possible harm to their self or others and use checking rituals to relieve their stress. There are also other symptoms that are more crucial such as skin pricking, hair pulling, body dysmorphic, taking excessive substance or medication. From the findings of this research, it is found that OCD is not normal and to be proud of. The presence of obsessions and compulsions can cause major distress or disruption to daily living.

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6. Methodology

Mass Media can influence children’s unhealthy behavior by watching Malaysian cartoon characters and expose them to negative characteristics such as OCD. Case studies of the portrayal of mental health in Malaysia’s animation are reviewed. Types of media that will be reviewed are animated television series, animated PSA and local cartoon characters. These materials will be analyzed for the findings and a guideline will be produced in order to raise awareness to prevent the level of OCD mental health among Malaysians.

7. Conclusion

In conclusion, visualising the awareness of obsessive compulsive disorder through animation is possible to help better understanding for children in Malaysia. The story line and choices of actions are thoroughly researched and outlined, so that the awareness of OCD symptoms and animation appreciation could reach to the audiences. Even though mental health issues such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) has not reached critical level in Malaysia, it is important for us to highlight this matter in the early stage. With these methods, we hope Malaysian to accept the importance of this issues as one of mental illness. Creating awareness can help to educate the society because everyone is responsible to accept the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as a mental health illness. Executing this research will help children and their parents to deepen their understanding and spread awareness of mental health issues such as OCD through animation for children in Malaysia. Hopefully, this research and project will help to broaden the views and skills on the art of animation productions and the importance of mental health issues.

8. Acknowledgement

We thank Faculty of Film, Theater and Animation for giving us advise and permissions to use all the facilities in the faculty to continue our research, Visualizing Symptoms of Mental Health through Public Service Announcement Animation. Thank you to the organizer of International Conference on Business, Technology, Tourism, Education, Culture and Social Science 2020 (BISTEC2020) for accepting our paper into the conference.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to for all the supports especially in terms of financial and also guidance throughout our journey. We thank our colleague Dr Mohd Syuhaidi Abu Bakar, our Research Coordinator FiTA, who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the research. We would also like to show our gratitude to Dato Professor Dr. A. Razak Mohaideen for sharing his pearls of wisdom with us during the course of this research. We are also immensely grateful to Dr Norman Yusoff, the Head of Center of Postgraduate Studies, for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, although any errors are our own and should not tarnish the reputations of these esteemed person.

Lastly, we would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the completion of this research.

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