by Grace Efezokhae

A while ago, I came across a Facebook status of a young man who served with me in Gombe state. He lamented about how he feels like a failure in every area of his life; his relationships, career and other aspects of his life. I was perplexed. This is a young man, full of life with, a chartered accountant with a well-paying job. The comments that followed were shocking and mostly made out of ignorance. How can someone say that the poor guy who needs help is not serious and he should just snap out of it or another even going as far as saying he’s been chased by witches and wizards from his home town (that could have been my answer a while ago *covers face*). These are signs of depression and I feel he needs some form of compassion. I typed in there that he should go get some professional help in caps lock.

Aside from the Robin Williams saga, the number of cases of suicide in Nigeria I read about is alarming. Based on my research, one of the major causes of these suicides is DEPRESSION. According to www.mayoclinic.com, depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depression, major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and depression may make you feel as if life isn’t worth living.

Symptoms of depression could include: Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness or hopelessness, loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, difficulty concentrating and complaints of poor memory, insomnia or oversleeping, appetite changes, which may include weight gain or loss, fatigue, lack of energy, thoughts of suicide or death, loneliness, feelings of worthlessness amongst others.

Depression can result from so many factors including fear of the unknown, rejection from loved ones, social media frenzy, getting carried away by the achievements of your peers, divorce, physical and emotional abuse, loss of livelihood, pregnancy amongst others.

Depression can be both physical and mental. Physically, it may seem as if a log of wood is lying on your chest or someone is grabbing your heart and ripping it off. You may feel heavy or just feel empty inside of you. In spite of it all, Nigerians still have a judgemental, pious and holier than thou attitudes towards cases of depression. Several people are suffering daily from depression and we all need to raise awareness on mental health matters.

Depression is not a white man’s headache. We really need to deal with this.

Depression can result from so many factors including fear of the unknown, rejection from loved ones, social media frenzy, getting carried away by the achievements of your peers, divorce, physical and emotional abuse, loss of livelihood, pregnancy amongst others.

An environment where people can talk about their feelings of depression without judgement and criticism will go a long way in treating this issue.

Michelle Williams who suffered from depression in her teens said, “We are just taught to 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 okay if you’re going through something. Depression is not okay, but it is okay to go get help. Please, admit that you need help and seek professional help.”

Depression is not the same as sadness and you cannot just tell someone suffering from such to “get over it”. He/she needs more than prayers; they need to be listened too without bias. It’s even harder for a depressed person when whoever they confide in doesn’t understand what they are going through and thinks they are being cursed or being chased by witches and wizards. A good counsellor should ask them how they feel, be patient with them, tell them they are not alone and show them some love. Help them understand that depression is a mental challenge and doesn’t mean they are failures and that this issue can be addressed. Extra love and care needs to be shown to them no matter how irritable they could get.

Anti-depressants alone cannot deal with depression, therapy from professionals will go a long way. If someone confides in you on his/her depressed state, you don’t have to go about making a jest or telling others about it.

In our everyday lives, we have to challenge negative thoughts and always remind ourselves that no matter how we may have failed in certain endeavours or fallen short of certain standards or being rejected by the world, we should always remind ourselves that we are more than good enough.

Nobody has a perfect life or has it all together. Being human comes with its own roller coaster of emotions. The seemingly strongest and happiest people have their own share of bad days experiences. It’s up to each and every one of us to take it up on ourselves and read more on mental health.

The media should rise up to this challenge to create more awareness on these social issues. Wars and guns may have killed millions; IGNORANCE has killed billions.

I will advise that we all read more on mental health and seek counsel when necessary. I read Mental Health Matters by Gloria Ogunbadejo on Sunday punch newspapers. She is a mental health advocate of repute. You can follow her on Twitter. I have really learnt a lot from her articles; they keep curing me from my seemingly ignorance on mental issues.

INFORMATION IS KEY; IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSE

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Grace Efezokhae blogs at www.graciemama.com

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.