When people say they are ill, it connotes ailments like malaria, typhoid, cough and other hitherto ‘mild ailments’. When they say they are sick what comes to mind are sicknesses like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, lupus etc. However, when afflicted by mental illnesses, what comes to the minds of many people including people who should know better is that it is a spiritual attack from the devil or to use Nigerian parlance ‘One’s village people are chasing the person.’ This explains why some ignorant people take psychiatric patients to spiritual homes for exorcism rather than to hospitals.

While I am a firm believer in science, it still has its limitations at least for now as there are many ailments for which there is no cure but can be effectively managed throughout the person’s lifetime. Ailments like hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, sickle cell etc have no cure but with medications can be managed very well. Why don’t the parents or guardians of these sufferers or the patients themselves seek spiritual help? Why don’t they get chained or run from one spiritual home to the other in search of an elusive cure?

A Consultant Psychiatrist and CEO of Grey Insights, Dr. Shola Olowookere has this to say about mental illness as reported by Punch Newspapers on April 17, 2022. In his words “The mental health challenge is huge and it is just so sad that we are not talking about it enough. A lot of things are being swept under the carpet. There is not much emphasis and importance placed on our emotional health. Mental disorders are significant, and that is why we need to be reminding ourselves about them.

“We at Grey Insights are really trying to implement global best practices. We try to encourage people to talk about their emotions, which is something that we, as Nigerians, are not used to doing.

“We need to encourage people to speak up. We need to normalise that conversation. Driving past the Lekki toll plaza still brings a lot of anxiety to many as a result of the shootings of 2020. All these are gradually impacting the way we think, feel and behave, and we need to talk about this.

“We set this up for professionals, who are too busy taking care of other people and forget to care for themselves. It is a safe space for therapy and relaxation. It is a place to be at peace with oneself and just be in a happy place, forgetting about work stress for a moment.”

I have earlier written that mental health employees should be given adequate healthcare coverage in the workplace as the prevention of relapses would make for a more productive workforce in the country’s overall best interest. Billions of dollars is being lost to avoidable illnesses and breakdowns by mentally challenged employees.

Mental health stakeholders have a huge role to play to demystify this ailment and educate the public so that they deal in a more humane and compassionate way with the mentally challenged as the ailment can happen to anybody. There is the myth that mental illness is solely caused by drug or substance abuse and so it is the fault of the sufferers. This is not true as substance abuse is just one of the numerous causes. There are other factors like grief, lost expectations, dashed hopes, genetic factors etc that could be the raison d’etre for the illness and so in most cases its really not the patient’s fault and so there should be more empathy from the non-sufferers and society at large.

Some celebrities like Kanye West are open about their mental health challenges and the de-stigmatization agenda will have more bite and potency if more with the challenge can be open about their ailment as it will greatly inspire the millions of patients that all hope is not lost and they are not less human simply because they suffer from it. It will put a human face to the campaign and show that we are all vulnerable.

The ’I have a Dream Speech’ is one of the most widely read speeches of all time spoken by the legendary Reverend Martin Luther King Jr when he dreamt of a better deal for the black community that they wouldn’t be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I also dream of a day when mental health patients would freely post their visits to their psychiatrists and psychologists on their social media handles and the world would see it as no big deal as it will be equated to a regular and normal hospital visit.

Would this dream come to pass in my lifetime? Would I be like King who never saw the actualization of his dream and was even murdered for it? Would I be like the Biblical Prophet Moses who led the Israelites out of the desert but never saw the promised land?

Over to you time!

SOURCE: https://africavoiceshq.com/2022/04/19/mental-illness-is-really-no-big-deal-by-tony-ademiluyi/