Mental illness can be defined as an inclusive umbrella of different types of mental disorders which affect how a person behaves, thinks and reacts to circumstances facing them. It plays with their moods and well-being.
These disorders take over a person’s state of mind, they control one’s thoughts making them feel worthless and may fill the mind with suicidal thoughts. Mental illness starts with traumas experienced at tender age that were not dealt with and some of the unfortunate traumas we come across as we grow up.
Rejection, death, divorce, abandonment issues etc, are factors contributing to mental illness. Many people are sufferers in our communities including families, but are not aware of it because of little knowledge when it comes to the subject. And those that are aware are afraid to open up and seek help because of the stigma attached to mental illnesses.
When suffering from mental illness people view you as crazy, attention seeking, they claim that you are acting up to avoid your reality. These stigmas are mostly directed to men than women because society expects men to be strong, as culture says; “Indoda ayikhali”, not realising that they are encouraging suppression of emotions which may pose a danger. This results in outbursts of anger, violence, loss of control over reality.
Different types of mental disorders include: Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar and PTSD which are discussed below on how they affect individuals and some of their symptoms;
• Depression: Affects one’s everyday life, it makes an individual lose touch with themselves and everything else they enjoy doing. It is mostly caused by childhood traumatic occurrences and events towards adult life.
Depression plays games with one’s mind and mood swings. Some days one’s happy and ready to take over the world and on some they just want to die and be away from everyone else. Self-harm and substance abuse may be a coping mechanism to escape reality and on the worst of days suicide seem an escape route.
Ways to deal with it would be to talk to someone about your emotions, taking walks and absorb nature to lighten your mood. There’s also health facilities that will provide anti-depressants and counselling.
• Anxiety: It is the fear of the unknown, fear that hinders one from taking opportunities. Usually, a person may worry about what might go wrong and that results in sleep problems characterized by too much or a suffering from insomnia.
One may constantly experience physical pain and have difficulty in focusing on the task at hand. To overcome or lessen anxiety, the person should practice breathing exercises to calm themselves down. Talking and journalling also helps.
• Post traumatic disorder (PTSD): Arises when one cannot recover from experiencing or witnessing something traumatic, they get constant flashbacks, nightmares, self-blame and usually avoid situations that remind them of the trauma. Sufferers need to talk about their traumatic experience to someone they trust and also get professional help.
-South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) they have counsellors that assist people for free via the phone and also do physical interaction depending on what approach one is comfortable with.
Slindile Sibiya
Soweto Sunrise News
