CORRUPTION THE NEW NORM

 

Mental Health

If you ask most people what they understand about mental health most people automatically say it's someone who is crazy. With this understanding the topic of mental health is approached by most people with stigma and a topic that people hardly talk about. 

Mental health is important and platforms should be created to encourage people to open up. In Kenya the suicide rate is on the all time high. It's common to see in the media stories about suicide cases because of profound reasons. For instance, a middle aged man recently committed murder because of loan. Even the story of young students committing suicide because of not performing well in there final exams. Even more bizarre is the tale of parents who kill the children and also kill themselves maybe because of a spouse who left them or something.

WHO reported in the recent data that 421 suicide cases  330 are men. With high cases of attempted suicide from women. One of the main causes being depression. Depression not handled well breeds anxiety, fear and it might result to either self harm or harming of other people. Suicide or even murder is the extreme result of depression or even other mental health issues but what about unnoticed and undiscussed results of depression or other issues.

What we need to understand first is depression doesn't mean that a person is weak. Such ideologies are why people suffer from depression without acknowledging it and it doesn't also mean if a person thinks about suicide they are just weak and pathetic. Even the strongest person is human after all and no one is immune. 

Depression can be due to a number of factor and influenced by several things around us. Like one can be due to economic factors this is quite common where you find one is unable to make ends meet and they are disillusioned. Social factors like pressure from the society to be this version that is accepted with the norms of that particular society. Political factors as crazy as it sounds research has found that in Kenya the suicide rate was high during election time like in 2017. However, they haven't found the relation. With several other factors.

We need to be people who share and are ready to listen to people around us. We need to show everyone around us like friends and family we care about them and accept them as they are lest it's too late. We need to be observant and mindful about people around us most people who start getting depressed often change their behaviour. Believe it or not a research has shown we feel more fulfilled if we build the relationships around us. Ask a person close to you how they are really doing and really listen to them and follow up. Even if you feel depressed the best way is to acknowledge embrace what you feel that is the only way to overcome. To overcome anything you need to face it first.

We need to change our mentality on the whole topic of mental health, with the correct approach we will be able to have honest conversations and the healing process will begin.