The Society and its Stigma

Image Source

There was a time when people who were depressed or had anxiety issues feared talking about these mental health issues because of the fear of people looking at them like they were not serious with life or trying to garn for people's pity, especially the young ones or youth. It wasn't just people around, their families (Mothers and Fathers) didn't believe that there was anything as depression or anxiety in their words "All through their young lives, they never experienced it, so they do not understand what that means and do not believe they were going through such, they always feel their kids were just making it all up in their heads and will be fine.

We had young boys and girls comment suicide, we had men and women commit suicide because of depression, and every time the news broke into the internet, we heard people say "They weren't serious with their lives", which was why they resorted to committing suicide. As much as I feel committing suicide is always extreme, I still do feel that those who fall into depression and get to this point of committing suicide, weren't given the attention they needed to overcome this phase because depression is a critical phase.

News broke on the internet last week about a woman who committed suicide leaving behind three kids because her husband died for someone whose husband pampered and treated her like a queen, she didn't know how to do life with her three kids without her husband and so, she committed suicide.

When I and a friend were talking about it, I said something "Her family members failed her", as much as we would agree that she was selfish in making such a decision, without thinking about her very young kids, I felt that phase of her life, her family would have been her only support system and shoulder to lean on. If you've never experienced what it feels like to lose someone you love, you wouldn't understand.

Many people think that because they did not go through such a phase, so nobody is going through or can go through such a phase in their lives, but what they don't understand is that people process things differently, people state or mental, emotional and psychologically state is in different level and so two persons can not accept the same fate, or act the same way even if it was the same challenge and happened the same time.

Image Source

I lost a father who was my support system, and my number one cheerleader, so I understood her state, and truth be told, that period of my life was a stage that I prayed for death because I felt there was no life without my father, so you can imagine what it feels like for a woman to lose her husband, one who was her everything. I can tell you categorically that many do not know that there is anything called "Depression or Anxiety". Just maybe, if I had not had such experience, I understood what I was going through, I may never have understood what others were going through.

The thing is society and culture have always seen anxiety and depression as an unexpected thing, a thing made up in our heads and people who are unserious about their lives, so society and culture can affect both the way anxiety and depression are expressed and how treatment is accessed. I mean, if a church of our age still believes that their faith is meant to heal them of any kind of health condition and would prefer to watch their loved ones suffer and die from health conditions that a pill or simple treatment could heal, why do we feel that depression and anxiety would be treated differently in the society or culture.

Let's not forget that depression and anxiety can be termed to be "Spiritual problems" and the person involved could be asked to go for prayers because there are no herbal treatments for it culturally except for maybe it is taken to a native doctor who will also believe it is "Spiritual Attack" and would want to wade off evil by using some of their diabolic means.

This stigma caused by society is a result of ignorance of what depression and anxiety are all about especially from those who do not know what it means and may have not experienced it or may have experienced it but do not know that they are going through that phase. There could be many reasons why someone is going through depression or anxiety which could be a result of Social pressures, Socioeconomic factors, Family dynamics such as traumatic childhood experiences, and the rest, Negative worldview, Emotional restraint, Health literacy, and many more we can think of but many people still do not think this is enough for one to fall into depression or have anxiety issues, and so these concerns are swept under the rug even when the persons involved speak about it.

This is my participation in the Healthy-Bees Weekly Prompt : Week 2