TWO scenarios clearly illustrate the costly nature of ignorance around mental illness in our society.
Case A: In 2020, a young female student and poet took her own life. According to her friends who wrote tributes about her, and her own Facebook posts, she apparently had a chaotic childhood, was sponsoring herself through school. She was also looking after her mother, who was a single parent, as her father refused to accept responsibility when her mother was pregnant with her. She was a brilliant poet and a talented writer. She was dealing with depression and suicidal feelings for at least 11 months, as evidenced by the haunting details she wrote about in vivid words. Her despair, gloom and feelings of helplessness, as well as hopelessness, were all too clear. The intensity of her emotional pain was a strongly recurring theme across her writings and poetry. She was drowning and screamed through her writings for someone to help and rescue her. In the end, we all failed her.
Case B: A young mother recently killed her 21-month-old daughter by drowning her in a bucket of water. She had expressed such intentions earlier, as she felt her life was meaningless and that she was unhappy that she brought the baby into the world. Indeed, she saw the baby as a major setback that was restraining her from making progress in life and expressed these ideas to her sister, who was supportive and encouraging. The sister had notified their parents and pastor, who also intervened and prayed with her. However, the following day, after the sister had left for work, she had the time to carry out her intention. She then left a note for her sister admitting her action and bidding them goodbye forever. Subsequently, she reported herself to the police station. In the viral video, she admitted that she didn’t have any hope that things would ever get better at all. It is also important to note that the pregnancy was unwanted in the first place, and it resulted from date rape. But she blamed herself for it because she went to the rapist’s house by herself.
Discussion
We can’t do justice to all the issues that need unpacking within the constraints of space here, but we will attempt to flag a few and connect some of the dots.
- Ignorance, shame and stigma are deadly: In Case A, the young lady screamed herself hoarse through her writings for almost a year, but help was not forthcoming. Case B also had challenges and was fed up with life, was ashamed of her life, and saw her future as bleak. She considered prison to be better than her present existence. As a society, we need to be doing much better at recognising the symptoms and signs of emotional distress. We should not be dismissive or insensitive, and we should not be telling them to simply snap out of it. But we still view emotional challenges as a failing, a weakness, or a lack of faith to be scoffed at, rather than the medical disorder it is.
- Adolescent reproductive health and sexual assault need to be tackled: In Case A, the mother conceived her via an unwanted teenage pregnancy, and the man responsible refused to accept responsibility. Subsequently, her mother’s education was truncated, she was ostracised and shamed. She became bitter and turned to drug abuse (according to the writings of the late poet). She also resented the daughter, and it was a love-hate relationship all through until the daughter took her own life. In case B, it was also an unwanted teenage pregnancy that resulted from sexual assault. And unfortunately, it set in motion, a negative cascade of events that led to her probable depression and culminated in the tragic killing of the innocent baby girl.
- Social support and health-seeking behaviour: We need improved social services via the empowerment of social workers, better funding of the relevant ministries, and improved citizen awareness of how and where to seek help. In the context of case B, her sister was sufficiently alerted, but she turned to family and the pastor – with the best of intentions; but they perhaps lacked the expertise to recognise the danger. Otherwise, the baby should have been taken away from her, even if temporarily, and she should have seen a mental health professional.
- Criminal justice system and mental health: The criminal justice system, the police and correctional services should develop a harmonious working relationship with mental health professionals for smooth coordination of cases that may require mental health assessments and support. In case B, it is to be expected that her criminal responsibility and fitness to plead should be ascertained via psychiatric evaluation.
Conclusion:
The biggest obstacles we face remain ignorance, shame, and stigma associated with mental health challenges. We need to do better, connect the dots, and appreciate the far-reaching consequences.
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