For example, a person exposed to large
amounts of arsenic will vomit, have diarrhea, stomach cramps and
hyper-active sweat glands. These symptoms resemble that of a bad stomach
bug, cholera or even malaria. As the poison’s effects progress the
person will suffer seizures, go into shock and die within a few hours.
Autopsy rates at the Pathology University College Hospital in Ibadan
have declined from an average of 19% in 1984 to 3.6% in 2003. If this
trend is representative of the rest of the hospitals in Nigeria it is
possible for someone to die of arsenic poisoning without anybody
suspecting a thing.
While it is true that a singular
shocking incident may push people to extinguish their own lives, there
are several diagnosable mental health conditions that could cause
suicide. These include: severe depression, schizophrenia, Bipolar
disorder, Bordererline Personality disorder, Anorexia nervosa, and
generalised anxiety disorder. Nigeria as it stands today does not stand
fully equipped to deal with any or all of these mental illnesses. There
is roughly one psychiatrist for every million people in Nigeria.
My Grandmother has quite recently been
diagnosed with cardio vascular dementia. She forgets things. If she was
dressed any differently you would assume immediately that she was mad
but as she is well taken care of she never appears in public looking
anything but well kept. You should see the looks on people’s faces when
she kneels down in front of them at the Palms shopping mall in Lekki and
says, “Ekaro sir!” with eager and expectant eyes. When she eats, she
uses her knife as if it were a fork. Sometimes she even believes that
she is a 16 year old girl in high school. We didn’t know this until she
ran out of her room in a panic and said, “What are all these wrinkles
and rolls on my skin? They shouldn’t be there! I am barely 16.” We
laughed and said, “Mummy, it is because you are old.” Immediately after
that conversation she regained lucidity and could not recall why she had
left her room in the first place. For the most part she hides it well. I
see her carry conversations with people she no longer remembers all the
time without them catching on. This had led me to think that the mad
people roaming the streets may not actually be mad at all. Maybe they
have dementia like my grandmother because I know that left to her own
devices, she’d be walking quite happily along the expressway thinking
that she was on her way to her fathers house. I need not tell you that
her father died many years ago.
I fear that in Nigeria we misunderstand
the nature of mental illnesses. A mental illness is an illness just like
malaria or cholera. There is no just getting over depression or
bipolarism. You cannot tell a bipolar person to stop mood swinging like a
yoyo. That would be like telling a person with diarrhea to stop himself
from using the toilet. You can turn to God as we do with most things
but turning to God should never be the only response to someone showing
symptoms of a mental illness. God made psychiatrists and professionals
with an acute understanding of these things so it would be sinful to
ignore His creations just because you’re waiting for a miracle from the
Top Guy Himself.
Even worse than our misunderstanding of
mental health issues are our traditional beliefs regarding the subject. A
schizophrenic hears things that aren’t said (auditory hallucinations)
and has paranoid delusions. If you saw a schizophrenic in full throe of
his symptoms, you would assume that he was possessed, suffering from a
spiritual attack or incurably mad. Many would not guess that with an
anti-psychotic the symptoms could be greatly reduced.
A survey published in the South African
journal of Psychiatry in 2010 that studied 208 participants from the
University teaching Hospital in Uyo found that even though the
respondents were knowledgeable about the possible role of psychosocial
pressures and genetic factors in the causing of mental illness, 52% held
witches responsible, 44.2% held demonic possession responsible, and a
third of them believed that it could be as a result of divine
punishment. Now, you must keep in mind that these are the medical
professionals. If they are this bad, how bad must the rest of us be?
There is also the problem of shame. I
have a friend who is dealing with depression. This friend has no reason
to be depressed. He has never wanted for anything including parental
love. He has been to the best schools and is himself remarkably clever
but this time last year he was scarily close to killing himself. When I
asked him why he felt so low, he said that he felt inadequate and
inferior and that he felt undeserving of everything that he had received
from both God and man. This struck me as bizarre for here was a guy
that even on his worst day would blitz me in any exam. He had always
been of a melancholic disposition. When we were younger he would get
down for no apparent reason and stay down for weeks. As we grew older he
got better at hiding it. I always thought that the way he was. I’m sure
that he thought that too.
It didn’t occur to me or his family that
he was depressed and had been for a while. You’ll be happy to hear that
he’s doing a lot better now. He’s on a course of antidepressants and a
tight routine that he scarcely ever deviates from. A routine is
important for him because the symptoms of depression include a change in
eating habits (usually a decrease in appetite) and a change in sleeping
patterns (in his case he was always tired). He says that the hardest
thing, was admitting it to his friends and family that even when he was
diagnosed with it and knew it to be an illness he thought it was an
admittance of weakness. He thought it the pinnacle of self-indulgence
and I can see where he’s coming from. If you were depressed, could you
admit it to anyone?
As I hinted previously, people expect
the cure for mental illness to come from God. Most of you have probably
seen a mad man brought up to the altar for healing. In my opinion this
is the wrong way to go about it. Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child
when speaking about her battle with depression said, “We’re taught,
`Just go to church and pray about it. The Lord is going to heal you.’
Well, in the meantime, I believe God-gifted people, physicians, doctors,
therapists – that’s your healing. Take advantage of it. Go see a
professional so that they can assess you. It’s OK if you’re going
through something. Depression is not OK, but it is OK to go get help.”
So what should you do if a member of
your family or a close friend starts acting a little odd? You know?
Talking to himself and seeing things, or avoiding human interaction for
no apparent reason at all. Or if you notice that your teenage daughter
has well placed half healed scars on her arms, or if you find her eating
habits abnormal. Or if you have a particularly forgetful and
perpetually confused aging relative, or if one of your friends names
herself Sandra and acts differently, then calls herself Bob and acts
differently, and then reverts back to who she was. Get them to
professionals (particularly a trained psychiatrist and a general
practitioner of medicine. Leave your pastor or your witch doctor out of
it). Ignore all thoughts of demon possession, witches or curses, reserve
judgment and talk to them. Mental illnesses are not contagious. Make it
okay for them to tell you how they are coping with it all. Never assume
that a mental illness is a phase that will pass with time, apart from
if you are happy with the chance that it may be the sufferers last
phase.
Happy Days,
Afam
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