By Abdulwarees SoIanke
In the second quarter of 2001 when I resumed as Editorial Board member and Deputy Editor of The Monitor on Sunday, I decided to do something different by focusing its health page primarily on Mental Health. The Monitor is a weekend newspaper in the stable of the Ibadan-based Monitor newspapers published by the late Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Abdulazeez Arisekola Alao.
To the University College Hospital (UCH), Orita-Mefa Ibadan, I went to seek out the current Provost of the College of Medicine University of Ibadan. Tall, ebony-skinned, young and beautiful Dr Yinka Omigbodun, to recruit her, ex-gratia, as a columnist on Mental Health for the paper.
Every Friday, I would be at the UCH to trouble the cheerful and ever-radiant scholar of psychiatry for her column, *Mental Health with Dr, Yinka Omigbodun* to meet my production deadline. Editing and producing the regular Sunday feature of Prof. Omigbodun, then a consultant and senior lecturer in Psychiatry with a specialisation on children, youth and women’s mental issues was a rewarding experience in my journey in journalism.
I opened my mind to absorb her rich insights and profound knowledge on that aspect of health that is generally confused or misunderstood and so mismanaged in our society in the way we deal with those in the blues or shackles of mental health challenges.
The first theme, I remember she dealt with in her column, was Stress. Today, millions of men and women are in the mill, grill and grip of stressors and depressants, agonizing on what should ordinarily be seen as a normal phase of life. Painfully and silently, they are grinding and roasting in stressful and depressing circumstances.
They pray fervently to see an end soon to their predicaments or end it all finally when their prayers seem unanswered and no solution is seen in sight. These stressors and depressants are the omens that constitute the inescapable realities of our everyday life. These realities are challenging as the inevitability of life.
They have serious effects on the mental and psychological well-being, job performance, social connectedness and general life quality of all who are trapped in its vicious cycle. These stressors are the reasons for the increasing number of suicidal thoughts, attempts and actual suicides. They are behind the hopelessness and the anomie countless people manifest in society.
On the other end, they are the reasons some go into morally debasing and health-compromising lifestyles leading to corruption and justification of moral hollowness and therefore, perishing themselves in the storms and tides of life. So, sudden and untimely death, stroke high blood pressure and sicknesses.
All these, draining the purses of hapless victims, are commonplace in our society because of these stressors and depressants. Unfortunately, an industry of exploitation is thriving on the misfortune of stress and depression that people grapple with in many poor countries where fakeries and crimes of all sorts fester.
From miracle workers, prosperity preachers, strange and fringe faiths, child labour, baby factory syndromes, alcoholism to cover up, drug abuse to be high performing, cult membership for security, ritual killing as well as human and drug trafficking and the deliberate option of slavery in the name of Japa, people try to find justification for dabbling into crime and corruption. They see these as the quickest and surest means to wealth as grinding poverty is readily adduced as the precursor to stress and depression.
The interesting thing about stressors is that they need not only to arise from tests, trials and tribulations of life such as the death of a beloved, poverty, ill-health, denials and loneliness. They may indeed be byproducts of our arrival at the big stage of life, in celebration of achievements, promotion on the job, the arrival of new babies, marriage of our love.
Other such bye-products are the dedication of our new house, preparation for a journey of winning the cherished visa lottery, hitting the jackpot, winning a prized contract or just anything that increases the tempo of our life or disrupts our normal flow or order.
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Psychotherapists found a convenient and euphemistic way of describing this life-changing phenomenon as e-stress. On the other hand, issues and concerns that lead to fear or trepidation such as heavily hanging debt and outstanding school fees debts, among others, can cause drudgery.
They can also lead many to breakpoints and eventual breakdowns when they are stretched beyond the limit by distressing stressors. And depressing circumstances of life which manifest in a range of inexplicable ailments.
Indeed, fear of the unknown that leads to many pessimistic questions about life generally in the realm of the future aggravates the stress that many people experience. So, while still alive, they are haunted by the fear of what happens after they have gone to the great beyond. What is the fate of my children after I’m gone? Will my children be able to sustain my legacy? Will they make it in life? How can they cope without me?
The stress in the lives of many is their failing, floundering, sick and problematic children, their philandering spouses and their narcissistic or uncooperative partners that render many marriages toxic and head for the rocks of messy separation and divorce.
It may arise from an approaching academic examination, performance measurement interface or promotion and job interviews. For many, it is not even human-related. It is in their assets, wealth or possessions. Today, If it is not the problem of the car battery, tomorrow it’s the tyre.
Shortly after changing the entire car engine the problem of gearbox. Or, it is in the bid to retain eminence in public and remain relevant in the eyes of the world. So, in sports, music and theatre; in the corporate boardroom or on the chessboard of politics, players are roasting to death from the stress involved in their preoccupation.
In many challenged economies, most citizens are stressed by the absence of necessary public socio-economic infrastructure that enhances a decent quality of life. On every index of measuring development, such countries score very low to the extent that longevity in some of them could be less than 50 years.
From bad roads to poor water and sanitation to lack of or poor access to everything that makes life meaningful and enjoyable, they are just praying for miracles to make things happen.
In my study of this distress and depression phenomenon, I found that the solution to the challenges for which many took the wrong step of committing suicide, may just be talking to someone. Or it may just require changing some habits and values, adopting a new lifestyle or even getting off your seat in the office and strolling around the vicinity to ease tension.
I pray to Allah to grant me the grace to address these strategies in greater detail as soon as I continue my wise whisperings in commemorating my 35th year in the writing craft. Alhamdulillah!
SoIanke, Deputy Director/Head, Strategic Planning & Corporate Development Department, Voice of Nigeria, writes from Abuja (08090585723 korewarith@yahoo.com)
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