- Schizophrenia is one of the most commonly stigmatized mental health disorders.
- Parents should watch for things like emotional reactivity, moodiness, despair, heightened anxiety, and melancholy in their children’s growth.
- Barriers to raising awareness of mental illness include lack of adequate resources, stigma, and false information.
Kenyan legend Conjestina Achieng is a former female professional boxer who made history within the first decade of the 2000s.
She was a true beast in the ring and had held the Super Middleweight Champion world title twice, the Global Boxing Union championship and World International Boxing Federation (WIBF).
Achieng was the first African woman to win an international title, the Vacant WIBF Middleweight.
For the champion, paranoid schizophrenia arrived too quickly and too soon.
Many residents at the time couldn’t even correctly pronounce the illness and to the unaware, the only thing that was concluded about the boxer was a myth that she had become insane after taking a serious head hit during one of her fights.
It took a toll on her, abandonment and isolation to the point that self-recognition became difficult.
The better part of the media chased after and broadcasted stories of her downfall, illness, and the single life she was living with her parents in Umiru village, Nyamninia sub-location in Siaya County.
She was diagnosed with schizo symptoms.
Few netizens, through social media profiles, demanded adequate interrogation, but it quite went unheard until her son turned to social media to ask for assistance for her ailing mother six years after she dropped her boxing gloves.
Mike Sonko, the former Governor of Nairobi County, took it upon himself to see that the boxer recovered.
He got her a new admission to the Mombasa Women Empowerment Network Hospital in Miritini for further treatment and rehabilitation.
Even though Mike Sonko attributed the problem to the government’s inefficient funding and distribution, there is still much that needs to be done to educate society about mental diseases.
Nearly ten years after receiving her initial diagnosis, the boxer has finally been able to speak again about her desire for the glorious days towards the end of last year.
In her interview, she voiced her desire to return to the ring dismissing claims that were initially running across social platforms that she had lost her life.
“I want to recapture my IBF title locally before I retire. If sponsors can chip in, I will be glad and appreciate it,” she said in an interview with a local media station in Kenya, assuring that she was alive and even in better shape now.
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is one of the most commonly stigmatized mental health disorders.
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, it affects 1 in every 100 people; it can even develop in early adulthood.
It is a mental illness that affects the way you think and may come in many types.
Even though it has different forms, this illness’s symptoms are either positive or negative, to mean one may experience things in addition to reality or might feel withdrawn from reality.
This type of mental illness, just like any other mental disorder, is manageable, and one can live perfectly with it with proper medication and psychological care.
Medical perspectives
Munene Njue is a Senior Nurse at the Department of Health Services at Embu University College.
He says a mental disorder is a product of “a physiological disturbance of the brain when it comes to thinking, behavior, energy, or emotion that make it difficult to cope with the ordinary life demands.”
Regarding mental health, teenagers are most affected, followed by adults and kids.
Research on mental health aims to unearth many facts from complex topics such as hereditary illnesses, brain chemistry, brain anatomy, physical conditions, traumas, and life experiences.
This year’s theme of mental health awareness month is anxiety.
Almost everyone gets anxious, but it’s on a different level when you suffer from it as an illness or a disorder.
Anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and panic disorders, including panic attacks, generalized disorders, and particular phobias, to name a few, are more common in adulthood.
The other prevalent mental health ailment in alignment with anxiety is a mood disorder, which affects roughly 10% of adults annually and includes illnesses like depression.
However, other forms of mental illness can totally change people’s perspective about a person ending another’s career or, even worse, ending one’s life.
According to a report from the World Health Organization, the quality of the environment that children and adolescents grow up in significantly impacts their well-being and development.
Their likelihood of having poor mental health is increased by their parent’s or caregiver’s mental illness, unpleasant events, violence, and difficult living circumstances.
Smelling the coffee
What warning indicators should you look out for in a developing child?
- Separation from the rest of the family
As a parent, you should step in and offer them guidance or seek help from a professional if your child begins to spend a significant amount of time alone in their room or away from the rest of the family. Withdrawal has its own complexities.
- Alteration of behavior
Parents should keep an eye out for things like emotional reactivity, moodiness, despair, heightened anxiety, and melancholy in their children’s growth.
Lack of interest is sometimes mistaken for development or the discovery of new interests.
However, if it isn’t obvious that the child has evolved into another form, or rather if there hasn’t been any new development, then lack of interest is definitely another symptom that your child may be developing problems.
- Bullying, violence and trouble in school.
Self-harm by children is unusual, and if you see any signs of violence in your kids, you should intervene right away before things worsen.
Regardless of how much discipline is enforced, excessive disobedience, aggression, and impolite behavior in young children may simply be imitations of unresolved disturbances.
At this time, the child may simply be in pain from the inside, and assistance may be preferable than correction.
Taking action
Why should mental health discussions be more frequent?
It is a significant problem for global health, largely because of the stigma attached to it.
A better understanding of the issue may shape how society views and addresses it.
Stigma and a lack of open dialogue can be overcome with the right information and forums.
Additionally, it can aid in the fight against the isolation and loneliness that surround this element.
When others embrace you for who you are rather than the sickness you are suffering from, it can support you in the healing period and help you manage these illnesses.
Some of the main barriers to raising awareness of mental illness is a lack of adequate resources, stigma against people who seek treatment, and false information.
The establishment of reasonably priced treatment facilities can dispel the myth that mental health disorders only affect the wealthy and Westerners for the simple reason that the middle and lower classes cannot afford the costs.
The formation of an open platform and the frankness to discuss mental health issues—thanks to awareness campaigns, drives, and forums—are excellent instruments for establishing a stage for those who are experiencing mental health difficulties.
Public education helps society recognize early indications of mental health issues before progressing to a worse stage, such as death or suicide, which lessens stigma.
One can recognize the early indications and symptoms of mental health disorders; mental health is not the opposite of mental illness.
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