Supportive community is crucial for handling of mental health problems

Mental health is almost a taboo topic among most people, especially across sub-Saharan Africa. Why?

It is shunned because most people do not know anything about it, and is identified with unsolvable extremes such as “madness.”

Most people avoid at all cost voicing out their mental health plights due to fear of shame and segregation.

But mental health issues exist in a wide spectrum and are so common.

Taboos are fundamentally social, in the sense that they are shared by a community, there are no personal taboos.

In most African communities, especially among the sub-Saharan countries wellness is almost a status, and sickness or non-wellness tends to significantly affect the status of a person, hence the desire for most people to present themselves as holistically healthy, unless impossible.

It is time we shed out these cultural beliefs that get in the way of actual wellness and health and face the vulnerability of being unwell as a life reality.

This makes it easy to be helped. The good thing is we have professionals in the country, but they can only be fully utilized if people are set free from the cultural ties that make them see their actual vulnerability as a threat to their public image.

There is among other things, a problem of relating mental health issues with poverty or poor education.

Many think only poor people can have mental health issues! One can be educated and rich and still have mental health issues that necessitate help from professionals.

Mental health issues arise from a complex interplay of factors like genetics and psychological make-up, life experiences such as abuses, traumas, neglect, stressful experiences, and also the circumstances of the environment where one lives, be it in family, community, and even workplace.

This way we see almost everyone is susceptible to some form of mental health issues if things go wrong.

Having mental health issues is not a testimony of personal weakness, but a manifestation of human nature in response to the realities around. It is a cry for help as such situations can happen to anyone.

There are many people who do not even know that they have mental health disorders. This is why public awareness is crucial.

Experts point out, among others, a few signs that point to some form of mental health disorders: Prolonged sadness and anger, being confused and unable to concentrate for long, extreme mood swings, feeling hopeless, excessive fears and extreme feeling of guilt, withdrawal from friends and shared activities, feeling tired and with low energy for prolonged times, and having problems with sleeping.

There are many social stressors which can trigger these reactions, but it should stir concern if these situations persist for long times, or when due to these reactions one’s regular activities are adversely affected.

Mental health help is for one’s good. Oftentimes we cannot solve the problems that we think we can, especially those that manifest within us.

Without one knowing, the manifestation of mental health issues affects our relationships with people, and many tend to withdraw because we no longer relate in the same way as we did when in our normal sanity.

To save these social bonds and to be at one’s best performance holistically, it is important to seek mental health help when a need is sensed.

For those living in families, and especially parents, manifestations of anger, violence, anxiety, hopelessness, and guilt, among others, significantly affect the psychosocial formation of the children they raise, even without them knowing.

A child who is used to seeing his or her parents angry and violent will not be the same as a child who has grown up in a loving home and who sees parents as joyful, calm, and caring. Parenting operates by the GIGO principle, “Garbage In, Garbage Out.”

To conclude, we still need a lot of public awareness regarding mental health issues, especially among young people.

Many young people are already frustrated by the difficulties to handle life, to get a job, and provide for themselves and their new or prospective families. Yet there seems to be no enough avenues to get mental health support.

Adding to this the existing stigma towards mental health care as only for those extremely affected, it becomes difficult to get help across.

The government and private stakeholders need to join hands and extend the mental health care to communities, but these services need to be affordable and relevant.