Douglas Mulgirigama - First Book

Douglas Mulgirigama’s first book

By Mahendra “Speedy” Gonsalkorale 

We take great delight when a Batch mate does something very special. We can be justifiably proud of our Batch which has produced so many distinguished Doctors who have made significant contributions in various parts of the World and especially so of those who have contributed to Sri Lanka.  Our good friend Douglas has done something he can be very proud of. He has written a book in Sinhala aimed at the layperson wishing to get a greater understanding of mental health. His book titled ‘මානසික පීඩනය සහ කාංසාව” (“Mental Stress and Anxiety”) was published in 2019 and following its success, a second is planned for release in 2022. 

Douglas says “I am very proud to be a Sri Lankan and from my young days took great interest in studying the history of Sri Lanka, Sinhala Language and Buddhism. Probably my close contact with the local temple and the monks were influential in this. I also became interested in studying medicine. It was a Buddhist monk in the temple who germinated the seed describing it as a Noble Profession and the enormous merit one could gain by helping others and healing the sick”

Douglas echoes the thoughts of many when he says, “But any of these dreams would not have come true if not for the free Education I received to which I am very grateful and thankful to Sri Lanka”.

His background and aspirations

After graduating, he worked in Sri Lanka for about 6 years before coming to the UK. In the UK, he worked as a consultant psychiatrist for nearly 36 years before retiring.

“My plan was to get back to Sri Lanka. I even bought a piece of land in Kandy and built a house. It took about five years to buy the land and build. With the passing of time, I realised it is not the most practical or sensible decision though it was my dream”. 

Why did he write the book?  Douglas speaks for all of us when he says, “The main reason for writing the book was as a token of thanks and expression of my gratefulness to Mother Lanka for everything I have received, especially the free education which supported me to become a doctor. From a long time ago, I had this idea of giving something back”. 

“Realising that there is very little written, in Sinhala on mental health, I decided to take the challenge. The book I have published is on Mental Stress and Anxiety, titled ‘මානසික පීඩනය සහ කාංසාව”. The book was published by The Sarasavi Publishers”. At present I am working on a book on Mood Disorders titled ‘මනෝභාවය සහ සම්බන්ධ ආබාධ’which I hope to publish around April 2022” 

His plans for the future

Douglas speaks about his plans to utilise proceeds from sales of his book. “I am hoping to use all the money received from the sale of the books to promote the writing and publishing on mental health and to give bursaries to needy students. I have two aims: to make accurate and up-to-date information on Mental Health available to the public and making at least a modest attempt to reduce the stigma attached to Mental illness”.  

The launch of his book

The book launch was held on the 19th of January 2019 at BMICH. The Chairperson was Professor Ven Kotapitiye Rahula By good fortune, it was at the time of the 150th-anniversary celebrations of the Medical College and a few of our Batch mates were able to attend. Those who attended included: Pramilla Senanayake, Bandula Jayasekera, Lucky Abeyagunewardene, Indra Anandasabapathy, Dharmani and Amara Markalanda. Pramilla participated in lighting the ‘Pol Thel Pahana’ on behalf of the batch. Bandula Jayasekera volunteered and spoke a few words to support Douglas’s speech reinforcing the observation that the unfortunate stigma on mental health still exists not only in Sri Lanka but around the world. Prof Nalaka Mendis, Professor of Psychiatry emeritus delivered the Keynote Speech. 

Prof Nalaka Mendis’s comments

This book titled “Mental Stress and Anxiety” by Dr Douglas Mulgirigama is a welcome addition to the slow-growing volume of literature on mental health in Sri Lanka.

 During the last few decades, there has been a better understanding of the nature of mental health, mental distress, and mental illness as a result of scientific developments, evolving concepts of health, attitudes, values. Dissemination of this knowledge coupled with effective interventions and services has resulted in increasing numbers of people benefitting from the new developments, especially in developed countries. However, the benefit to people in less developed countries have been not as much, largely due to inadequate understanding of these developments, the prevailing stigma associated with mental illness, low values attached to mental health and issues of access to services. This publication aims to address general mental health issues useful for people in their daily lives by providing very valuable information on mental health, mental distress and mental illness.

Dr Mulgirigama is a very experienced psychiatrist who worked in the United Kingdom as a consultant over thirty years having had his early training in Sri Lanka. Over the years he has continued to keep in touch with developments in Sri Lanka. Throughout my association with him over four decades Douglas has expressed his desire to contribute towards the development of mental health in Sri Lanka. This book fulfils his long-standing desire and is aimed at raising awareness of mental health issues in the community. 

Three important reasons why Prof Mendis considers this book unique

In my opinion, this book is unique for three important reasons. 

Firstly, it reflects several modern developments in mental health. The modern concepts of mental health, promotion of mental health, prevention of mental distress and treatment approaches have been well described.  The new approaches to the understanding of stress, responses to stress and various anxiety-related syndromes have been described in detail. New treatment approaches such as pharmacological, psychological and others have been referred to. Stigma, though an old concept continues to impact people with mental health issues and has been dealt with effectively. The fact that mental distress or illness could affect anyone including great personalities will come as an important revelation to many. Descriptions of ways of promoting mental health, prevention of mental distress and effective treatments are welcome. Concepts such as Illness behaviour, abnormal illness behaviour and sick role are very useful in understanding health-related behaviour. 

Secondly, this is a very comprehensive publication. The book specifically focuses on mental health, mental distress and mental illness the three important emerging areas. The description on mental health is very useful to all of us and similarly, the concept of stress, normal and abnormal responses to stress are discussed in detail. References to stresses such as trauma, disaster and childhood experiences are also described in detail. The descriptions of illness experiences and manifestations of different forms of mental distress and mental illness have been illustrated with case histories.    

Thirdly Dr Mulgirigama, has been able to translate complicated concepts such as psychoanalysis, behaviourism, and cognitive behaviour therapy that have evolved in the world in various languages to Sinhala language in a clear and simple manner in a way that is easily understood by non-experts and people. I consider this a very important aspect of this publication. More recent developments such as psychopharmacology, biochemical theories and problem-solving approaches also have been described in simple language. 

On reading this publication I was happy that Douglas has been able to compile a book of high quality, which has a firm theoretical basis and practical relevance. This important publication would be of great benefit to mental health professionals, social welfare workers, educationalists, patients, families and the general public. I hope this will be made available in all local libraries”. 

In conclusion

That is the good news I wanted to share with you all and in conclusion, I say, “well done Douglas, we are extremely proud of your contribution and would like to wish you all the best in all your future endeavours”. 

This photo shows Douglas with his family. His wife-Pushpa, Daughter-Aruni, and her Husband-Mark and two grandsons-Jego and Dylan