The issue of mental health, the stigma around it and the need for an aggressive sustained mainstream awareness programme is becoming more and more acute. It is as necessary as any other serious health care programme that the government is running presently. We ignore it or keep it on the sidelines at our peril. We read stories every day of ordinary people’s bizarre behaviours and we gasp and shake our heads. We read more and more stories of rape of children and we scream cultism (it’s really more paedophilia). There are increasing stories of people taking their lives by jumping off bridges and hanging etc.
We experience and witness levels of rage and aggression of seismic proportions in the community at large and we say it’s the naija way. What we are about to see is an explosion of mental health issues in homes, affecting loved ones, in the offices affecting productivity. This is an issue in our midst, communities and we must address it. We must engage in honest and fearless discussion about it. We must discuss it in religious settings, hospitals, offices, conferences and homes.
I received a letter from a reader that was not only moving but highlighted the issue of mental health in its stark form and how it cuts across all social class.
Dear Gloria,
Thank God for you and what you have been doing with your column for the past five years or more! I also want to thank PUNCH for keeping your column going. When I first saw it years ago I remember my husband showed me and said no one would read it because the name of the column would scare people off. I’m now ashamed to say I agreed with him and we laughed it off. Even though something at the back of my mind was telling it was an important subject.
Let me give you some context and background to my life. Obviously it goes without saying that I require the utmost confidentiality. I am in my fifties and have a high powered position in politics which I have held for many years. I am married with children. I grew up in an affluent, well known family. I attended the best schools abroad and by all standards lived a privileged life.
I experienced a sustained period of sexual abuse between the ages of six and eight by an uncle which no one knew about. My father’s brother used me as a sexual tool to satisfy his urges although it was not penetrative sex; he exposed himself and used my small body to achieve sexual gratification. I never understood the meaning of what he did. I felt it was wrong but he was my favourite uncle and I adored him. He also told me what he was doing was a gift that special little girls like myself were given by specific uncles. I remember him clearly saying the only thing that could spoil it or make it become a curse that would affect the whole family especially my mother was if I told anyone. He said if I told anyone the first thing that would happen is my mother would get sick and she may die. So I told no one.
I constantly thought of telling my aunties or grandmother but I was very scared. One day after almost a year of this abuse happening while I was abroad, I saw a magazine with an article on child abuse. I was a very bright child and I read a lot and had more knowledge than a child my age. I decided I needed to tell someone to get confirmation if what my uncle was doing to me was something different and if I was okay. While I was abroad, I decided to talk to my auntie. Unfortunately, before I had a chance to tell her, we got a call that my mother had suddenly taken seriously ill. My young mind was convinced that she got sick because of my intention to talk about what was going on with my uncle. I became sick myself and riddled with guilt. I decided never to mention it to anyone or to even think about it. When I got back home my mother had been hospitalised and my uncle increased the abuse because my dad and family were at the hospital most of the time and he moved into our house since he was the favourite family uncle. He also told me that my mother may have got sick if I had even thought of telling anyone about what he was doing. Since I knew I had planned to tell someone, I was convinced I made my mother sick. He told me we needed to continue the abuse even more so she could get better. This is what he did for almost another year. My mother eventually got better so I believed it was because of the abuse.
My uncle eventually moved away so the abuse stopped but the damage was done. I didn’t know it at the time but I had a time bomb ticking within me. I concentrated on my school work and excelled academically but was unable to have any satisfactory interpersonal relationships with women or men. I did trust anyone and more importantly I didn’t trust myself and my potential to hurt people or to make them sick.
I was suspicious of all men and I felt angry towards older women because I thought were weak and could not protect young girls. When I got married, I can’t say I felt any strong love, it was just the thing to do to secure my career and give me the respectability the society places on marriage. However, when my children came, I had a different emotional feeling. I knew the feeling was burning love and I had an overwhelming feeling to protect them from any harm. This was when my demons came back to haunt me.
I think this might have been when the depression I might have been suffering for years took a turn for the worse and came down with a vengeance. I developed severe insomnia; I developed what I now understand from reading your column to be obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety and an eating disorder. I only realised these were real mental health conditions from reading your column.
Prior to that, I just thought I was a peculiar person and had peculiar behaviours as my husband always told me. However, what had the greatest impact on my life was when I read an article you wrote about the impact of child abuse on the life of a child and how it defines how the person views the world as an adult.
Then all your regular writings on various aspects and manifestation of mental health problems and depression have been hugely enlightening and I knew that I was a tragedy waiting to happen.
I am lucky I have the means to seek appropriate help and medical support but the fact that I did not have an awareness of it would have kept me from seeking help. I kept reading your column week after week and it made a significant difference in my emotional and psychological state. It was such a relief to know that what happened to me was not my fault and it was the reason I had struggled for so long with my life. I hope my story is helpful to others but even more importantly, I want to commend you on the work you are doing with your column. I am sure without sounding dramatic, it is life saving.
— Name withheld
Things to note about depression
While the definition of major depression may seem simple enough, depression has profound and varying impacts. Here are some surprising facts:
Depression has different triggers. People have a higher risk of depression if they’ve recently been through a stressful life event, if they’ve had depression in the past, or if a close family member has been depressed. Sometimes depression develops without any obvious cause.
Genes provide some (but not all) of the answers. The genetic predisposition to depression is becoming better understood and might explain why one person becomes depressed and another doesn’t, says Ole Thienhaus, MD, professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona in Tucson. A family history of depression matters, but it’s not always the only factor. For example, identical twins — siblings who have exactly the same genes — will both develop depression only about 30 percent of the time, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Depression affects the body. Headache, stomach problems, shortness of breath, and general physical tension can all be symptoms of depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Depression might be a “gut feeling.” A complicated relationship between the brain, the central nervous system, and the “good” bacteria in the gut could contribute to depression, according to a review of research published in January 2016 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. A varied diet that includes probiotics and prebiotics may play a role in managing depression, the researchers theorise.
Depressed brains look different. Imaging studies of the brain can show some of the structures and brain circuits that work differently when a person is depressed, says a review of research published in June 2015 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Depression is linked to other health problems. People with chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and multiple sclerosis may also have a higher risk of depression.
Depressed people might not look depressed. “Depression is a hidden illness,” says Jeremy Coplan, MD, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate in New York. Some people can seem upbeat and cheerful, but inside they’re struggling with the symptoms of depression.
Exercise helps manage depression. “Exercise improves mood state,” Dr. Thienhaus says. He explains that exercise helps stimulate natural compounds in the body that can make you feel better. Aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days. “We typically recommend that people with depression exercise, develop a healthy diet, and go to bed at a regular time.”
More than one antidepressant medication may be needed. Many people with depression don’t get relief from their first or second antidepressant. People who take a second medication without relief are considered to have treatment-resistant depression, Dr. Coplan says. His research, published in May 2014 in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, suggests that for some depressed people, the physiology of their brains means that certain antidepressant medications won’t work to treat depression or must be used in combination with other medications to achieve and maintain relief.
Source: Everydayhealth.com
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