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Mental health! I honestly do not know where to start from, will I start from highlighting how underrated and over-neglected it has been, or how everyone, treats it with kids-gloves, to only end up having it hunt us? Our mental health and well-being has always been relegated to the background.
What is health to start with?
During my early days in college as a medical imaging technologist, the definition of health was a very crucial part of our lessons, and I can remember every bit of it as it was so simple but comprehensive. Here is the most common definition of health as proposed by the World Health Organization:
Health is a complete state of physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.
If you notice, I've highlighted "mental", because for most people, you just need to look healthy to be healthy, mental health is usually not part of the picture.
But as you've seen from this comprehensive definition of health, mental health is a huge part of the picture, as well as social health. So, in essence, you need to look healthy, feel healthy, and have everyone around you convinced that you look, feel and act healthy.
What's Mental Health & Why is it Important?
According to the experts in WHO, here is the definition of mental health: "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.".
I've went way further to conceptualize mental health, and this is necessary before delving deep into other aspects of it. One is only mentally healthy, when they are able to cope with stresses of life, have a modest appraisal of their abilities, are able to learn well, work well and contribute efficiently to both their micro and macro community (Lol! I am being highly intellectual here 🤣).
Clearly, it is seen that a good state of mental health and wellbeing is necessary and vital if one must thrive. A lot of persons not doing so well today and not thriving in life as much as their potential allows could be as a result of a poor mental health and/or being in an environment that impedes their mental health and well-being, for example, living in Nigeria is not good for mental health.
My Mental Health As A Nigerian
Before talking about the parasitic relationship living in Nigeria and my mental health, I want to get a few things out of the way:
- Not all Nigerians would feel the way I do (individual circumstances vary significantly)
- Nigeria is not necessary the worse place on earth
- No one can be completely healthy whether mentally, socially, or physically.
With that out of the way, living in Nigeria as a Nigerian has been one of the key foundations of my mental health issues. Most Nigerians who are not politicians, influencers, or celebrities would agree with me on this.
Our problems in this country range from severe economic woes, dying morals, societal issues, and more. Among the plethora of issues we face down here, one major source of mental health challenges is how these issues impede my ability to thrive.
It feels like the country is fighting against all my attempts to thrive, like a very personal battle between myself and the government. The government keeps making wrong decisions and we keep suffering the consequences. It's not easy living in Nigeria. Especially living with the poor decisions by the government at all levels.
Even my attempt to leave the country is being made difficult by the government and fellow Nigerians, from how simple processes are becoming unnecessarily complicated, and how you've to bribe your way through all processes.
How I've Managed to Stay Mentally Sound
Initially, I always dwelt on my worries and the unending problems and issues with my country. Much later, I observed I wasn't doing myself the best, so I had to tame my expectations and have a more modest approach to it.
I came to realize first that no country is perfect, and while mine is worse, things aren't getting any better, and there is very little to nothing I can do to help the situation. So, instead of dwelling and worrying over something I have very little or no control over, I focused on what I can do. So, I focused more on myself, more on self-improvement and more on self-love. So, while I cannot see the country thrive, I started seeing myself improve and get better and that did a lot of good to me.
Another important thing I did was to tame my consumption of news. Honestly, we should call news bad news these days, as it is very hard to consume 10 minutes of it without feeling like asking about what the world is turning to. While the news covers important events and announcements, in reality, not all of its content was directly for me. I found that most often than none, the news only adds to my anxiety and nothing more. So, for my mental health sake, I've kept news in there proper place.
This is just a snippet of my mental health journey. Maybe, in the next related prompt, I would share more.
News means bad news. Seriously. I also start feeling depressed after watching news. It seems like nothing good is happening in the world. Everything is terrible.
Well, the way you are pissed of your government, we, the Pakistanis, also suffering the same. So rest assure, you aren't alone 🙃
I agree with the point that it is better to ignore what you can't change and direct your energies to the things that may bring improvement to your life.
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Thanks a lot amber for reaching out!
It is not easy to live in such depressing times, and thrive under a government that cares very little about their citizens. WE all we be fine someday!
Let's keep the best hopes. Hehe
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@beautiefair I totally agree with your opinion. there are many people who don't take their health seriously. they only focus on work and study and they forgot that there is no health and they can not make anything. I hope that your post will change many think of many people about taking care of their health.
Thanks sophronia for reaching out. I appreciate your nice words! I also hope too that this post gets people to take their mental health more seriously!
Omo Nigeria is enough to make you run mad ooo.
I totally agree with this point. If you can carefully stay away from the news which is bad vibes already it will help you a lot. I almost ran mad one time. I did this too to get out of it because eh, it was as if everything was happening inside my head
Honestly my sister! You know when there are some obvious things and truths, that you see the media present in a total opposite light, and the government continuously making bad decisions, you wonder where's the heart of Nigerians.
If I would have to listen to news only to hear how billions are being spent on unnecessary projects, monies are being borrowed like craze, and other mentally unhealthy stuffs, lemme just remain in my newsless enclave. Something must kill a man (or a woman)!
Thanks my sister for reaching out!
Nigeria is a place that requires energy to survive. Mental health issue should be taken seriously in Nigeria because we are going through a lot.
Honestly! We are going through a whole lot. God will help us!
Ameen
You raised really good points there and I must say I feel the same about the relationship we have with this country as Nigerians living in Nigeria.
You know, this is the type of country where you can make an extraordinary effort and break sweats round the clock, but it still won't guarantee that you would have sufficient Finance to take care of all your needs. In fact, people work like crazy but what they earn are peanuts.
Thinking of this is enough to cause severe mental health issue, but we can't allow ourselves to dwell too much in that misfortune. Let's continue focusing on what we can do.
Kenechukwu! Seeing your comments just made me kenechukwum, you've really spoken well. I think the poverty is one of the most distressing part of being a Nigerian. Nigeria is simply set out to ensure that her citizens remain poor by all means, while only a few gather the wealth.
But we can't continue crying, while we remain part of the failed state, we'll just have to keep living like aliens till we either die, change our condition for the better, or still, things could get worse.
Hah! I see with you did with the name right there. Hehe. That's a really cool wordplay.
As for we in this Nigeria, we are already born into the country. Some will be able to tell their success story sometime in the future, while others will forever be in a near-success-syndrome.
I just hope we all get to have an adorable story to tell about our achievement.
I hope so too!
Yay! 🤗
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Living in a world where all you see confronting you daily are challenges that are refusing to get better, is a big threat to mental health. It will be very easy for one in that condition to be in fear and worry than maintain a good state mind. it is difficult for a wound to get healed when it is being disturbed. Imagine seeing your fears getting worse everyday...
I think, you are doing yourself good by staying away from bad news as you called it, else.. you would only be adding salt to your wounds...
Focusing on what you can do to make life better is also another wise idea, instead of remaining in our problems by worrying all the time, we should find means to walk out of them.
You've really spoken well my dear friend. Living in Nigeria is a nightmare, seeing policymakers come up every day with anti-people policies, and measures. It pains!
Seeing obvious things and truths covered by lies and deceits. We'll basically live in despair every passing day if we don't have a quick grasp of our mental health before it goes south.
Thanks @Emreal for being real! 😂
My sincere prayer daily is for this things not to pass down to our innocent children..
Funny😁😁.. you are always welcome ma..