Charley, We Gotta Talk…

Greetings, greetings, greeting to you all, errm it’s been a long while and I have missed you well, well, and I know you have missed me too. I want us to look at something that is affecting us, abeg, it is not another galamsey epistle (though there are some in the pipeline), I want us to look at mental health and mental health issues and how we are conveniently not talking about it. In as much as for a very long time I have been talking about Mental Health in my own small way, and for a very long time I have had a Mental Health Nursing textbook that I read periodically to acquaint myself with how to help people going through mental health issue or other issues that might take a toll on their mental health, Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife by Anna Johnston, Lil’ Wayne’s interview on Uncomfortable Conversations with Emmanuel Acho (where Lil’ Wayne volunteered to talk about his mental health issues) and some of the happenings within the country served as an eye-opener to the fact we as a nation are not really talking about mental health as we should and we are sitting on a time bomb that can go off at any time.

Well, according to WHO “Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. It is more than the absence of mental health disorder.” “It is being able to be comfortable with oneself, feeling good with ones relationship with other and being able to meet the demands of life with satisfaction.” In the wake of increased cases of drug abuse and influx of drugs in our society is important for us to know that not all mental health issues are drug (abuse) related, neither is it true that; mental health patients have low intelligence, teenagers have mood changes and not mental health issues, all mental health patients are violent, bad parenting leads to mental health issues or weak people have mental health issue (medicalnewstoday.com), we are all at risk in one way or the other of developing mental health issue. In truth we can have a full functioning person suffering from mental health issues, Lil’ Wayne has had mental health issues since the age of ten (10), but how many people can look at him in his prime or elements and think he has mental health issues? So yea, what I mean to say is that mental health issues don’t discriminate, it is more complex than we perceive it to be, there are people suffering from mental health issues that show no signs of it.

There are lot of factors that predisposes a person to mental health issues aside their family history and or biological factors. Difficult childhood, bullying, exposure to critical financial or social issues, wars or conflicts, inequality or discrimination, accidents, toxic relationships, divorce or broken homes, toxic working environments, harsh parenting and severe physical punishments are some factors that put a person at risk of mental health issues, it is also imperative to note that mental health issues can be developed alongside other health issues. Oversleeping or under-sleeping, hearing of voices, being confused, eating too much or too little, displaying negative emotions, crying, thinking of (or trying to) causing physical harm to themselves, feeling of hopelessness, withdrawal from family and friends, avoiding activities they usually enjoy are some of the signs that indicate that an individual might be suffering from mental health issues.

A little over a decade ago when I first heard a mate was suffering from mental health issues, I never dreamt that I will grow up one day to realize that mental health issues is closer to me than I ever thought. All I ask is that, it takes a whole village to help a brother or a sister who has had an episode of mental health to get back to their feet, so let us be kind, compassionate, understanding drop all the stereotyping and stigma associated with mental health and open our arm accepting them back into the society. And yea, of course, charley we gotta talk about mental health in our homes, churches, schools, offices, institutions, workplaces, and wherever we find ourselves. We gotta advocate for mental health outlets in our communities, a conducive working environments, a conducive learning environments, mental health should have a space in our sermons at our churches and mosques, we need to stand up for ourselves and our friend who needs an advocate, let us be each other’s keepers.

Koffi Adu Flair Demigod
28/02/25.

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