Mental Illness is arguably the most misunderstood of all illnesses since it is an ailment that afflicts the mind rather than the body. For instance, some people wouldn’t know that a mental health patient has the challenge unless it was disclosed to them.

This makes it a rather controversial sickness leading many people all through the ages to opine that it is an attack from the devil and can only be cured through crude means of exorcism.

I have argued time and time again on this platform that it is a regular disease that in most cases needs a lifelong management no different from hypertension, diabetes, high blood pressure, lupus, alopecia etc. Do the sufferers of the other aforementioned illnesses get dumped in churches especially the Pentecostal under the guise of fasting and prayers?

I read Prof Taiwo Sheikh’s Vanguard Column on April 19, 2022 aptly captioned ‘Common Myths and Misconceptions of Mental Illness 1’ and I boldly recommend it as a must read for everyone.

In it he debunked many of the age-long myths associated with mental illness.

The first myth that Prof Taiwo Sheikh debunked was that the mentally ill and always violent and dangerous. This misconception makes the ignorant minds always get them tied up in chains as a forestalling measure to their ‘violence’. This is not always the case as many are rather peaceful especially when they are on medications that calm them down.

The second myth drawn to our attention by Prof Taiwo Sheikh is that the ailment afflicts only the dull and unintelligent. He debunked it as the illness is no respecter of intellect and can afflict anyone whether brilliant or simpleton. History has shown many brilliant minds who were sufferers of the ailment. One of the best music talents Kanye West is open about his bipolar disorder condition. A prominent businessman and politician and another popular politician names withheld in Nigeria are mental health patients and so its really no big deal.

The third myth though this wasn’t written by Prof Taiwo Sheikh is that mental illness is solely caused by substance or drug abuse. While substance or drug abuse is a cause, it is not the sole cause as many factors like grief, genetics, disappointments, assault, provocation, environmental etc could cause mental illness and so it is unfair to label all mental health patients as junkies.

Prof Taiwo Sheikh also condemned the labelling that our cruel society gives the mentally challenged by calling them derogatory names like ‘kolo’ ‘were’ ‘nuts’ ‘cracked’ etc. Such labeling has a way of greatly dampening their self esteem and leading to more problems with some even contemplating suicide as a way out.

He said that the discrimination suffered by the mentally ill isn’t just by family, friends and society but by also the caregivers who ironically take care of them especially in the public hospitals where the patients are seen as mere contractual chattels. It is a common trend for the crisis intervention team to mercilessly beat up any patient who ‘misbehaves’.

What about the stress that the patients go through when they buy their medications? The insults, sneer talk by some of the hospital members of staff that attend to them is enough to break the heart of a lion.

Mental health advocates should court experts like Prof Taiwo Sheikh in their bid to de-stigmatize and demystify the illness. There should be the mixture of town and gown which Prof Taiwo Sheikh embodies. It is tragic that not only are there less than 200 psychiatrists for over 20 million patients in Nigeria, our ‘scholars’ hardly do research because of the hostile learning environment of the country which has forced out many of them abroad for greener pastures. The ones who chose to stay back are so weighed down by the pressures of daily living that they don’t have the luxury of time to engage in research which is viewed by many as a thankless job especially as there is the dearth of funding for it.

The corporate bodies can step in to fill in the lacuna. It is not enough for them to sponsor sports and entertainment or some random mental health seminar. They should fund mental health research as Nigeria is sitting on a health time bomb if about over 20 million of her citizens are afflicted with mental illness. It will negatively affect Corporate Nigeria and there is the need to finance research on mental health for the better well being of employees in the workforce and the country at large.

More academics should also get involved in mental health advocacy. It is not enough to write scholarly papers and publish in health journals which has a very restricted reading audience. The public should feel their pulse more as they have a lot to offer with their vast knowledge base. I must indeed commend Prof Taiwo Sheikh for his weekly pontification and intervention in the widely read Vanguard Newspaper despite his busy schedule of lecturing, research and writing academic papers. He is an activist scholar which Nigeria and Africa so desperately need.

Well done Prof!

SOURCE: https://africavoiceshq.com/2022/04/21/i-stand-with-prof-taiwo-sheikh-by-tony-ademiluyi/