By Yemi Olakitan
In observance of World Mental Health Day, which is observed annually on October 10, it is noteworthy to discuss what mental health is all about.
According to the World Health Organization, “at any given time, a variety of individual, family, community, and structural factors may interact to preserve or impair mental health. Despite the fact that the majority of people are resilient, those who are exposed to adverse conditions, such as poverty, violence, disability, and inequality, are at greater risk.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines a mental disorder as a clinically significant disruption in a person’s cognition, emotional control, or behaviour.
There are varying degrees or intensities of mental disease, ranging from mild to moderate to severe.
According to reports, anyone can develop a mental disorder at any point in their lives, depending on the situations they face.
The First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Aisha Buhari, for instance, recently acknowledged that her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at some time in his life. According to her, the civil war, the coup d’état, and her husband’s captivity all contributed to his mental condition.
Counseling, other forms of psychotherapy, manipulation of the environment, are employed alone or in combination with medicine to care for such patients. Mild kinds of sickness may just require counselling or psychotherapy, according to reports.
This explain the wrong notion generally held in Nigeria that anyone suffering from mental health must be mad. Experts’ reports say otherwise. Those who suffer mental health are not necessarily roaming the streets in rags and eating from the dustbin.
American musician and entrepreneur, Kanye West is a perfect example, he was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder in 2016.
Kanye was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after he was being hospitalized for a psychiatric emergency. In the years since, he’s spoken about experiencing manic episodes, often tweeting and performing through them. He has however set up many businesses and doubled his earnings as a musician and entrepreneur. Kanye West is a Billionaire in American Dollars. Kanye was never found roaming the streets in tattered clothes and speaking nonsensical innuendoes all about or eating from the garbage. This is a negation of what most Nigerians think mental health is all about.
Taiwo Obindo, president of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), stated that more than 60 million Nigerians suffer from mental diseases. This statement clearly does not imply that more than one-third of Nigerians are “crazy”?
Mental disease, often known as mental disorder, is a broad category of illnesses that impact mood, cognition, and behaviour.
Report say that the vast majority of individuals in Nigeria are ignorant that they have a mental disease; hence, they do not seek treatment. The stigma, misconceptions, and conventional beliefs that influence people’s judgments and attitudes toward those with mental illness contribute for the fact that many sufferers do not seek treatment.
Overall, a concerted effort by the government and an increase in public understanding could go a long way toward decreasing misconceptions regarding mental health disorders in Nigeria and aiding individuals in finding closure.
