Mental Health Series, Part 2: Where It Gets Serious

Kamikun Adebajo
Oct 2, 2021
5 min read

Updated: Mar 2, 2023

Ever seen a mad person on the streets before?

That's the only thing most Nigerians associate with the word "mental" so it's no wonder, there's very little conversation about it. Especially in high-stress cities like Lagos where you'd think people would be more mental-health-conscious, the misconceptions, fear, and falsehoods still don't disappear.

Hi everyone and a special welcome to our first-timers.

Today's post is part 2 of the mental health series.

Last time, we talked about sound mental health, mental stress, and how mental stress no matter how much can be beneficial depending on how we respond to such stress. We categorized our mental stages into 4 different sections: sound mental health, mental stress, mental health concerns, and mental disorders.

Then we defined our first 2 stages of mental health. Now let's review the last two stages - mental health concerns and disorders.

(If you haven't had a chance to read the first post, I really suggest you do. If not for anything but the fact that we will be making a lot of references to words from our first post😇)

What is a mental health concern?

From my research, I found no explicit definitions of mental health concerns, but my best definition was derived from this explanation by Mayo Clinic.

"a mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function."

From this, I think I can safely say that a mental health concern is a behaviour or group of behaviours that hint at a frequent or growing distress.

Many people are in this stage but because of fear of judgement, try to suppress their symptoms including feeling anxious or depressed most of the time, excessive behaviour (either staying indoors all the time or a desperate need for socialization or stimulation), frequent mood changes, insomnia and lack of concentration.

It's common to think, "Oh. It's just the stress that comes with the job or life or is it really a big deal?" But it's more than just stress and yes it is a big deal. Why? Because these symptoms are usually your body telling you that something is wrong and could get worse. Ignorance here is at your risk. This is 25 to 50 on our mental scale.

Image credit: HelpGuide.org

Now, if you think you experience depression or anxiety constantly, this does not mean you're in trouble. It just means that now you know you have to do something about it. Most people would often read articles on mental health and self-diagnose themselves with conditions they don't even have. The good news about stage 3 is that once you are aware, you can control your situation by being intentional about your health and taking practical, tangible steps to improve it. Stage 3 is not some hopeless place where you must descend into a mental illness, you are still behind the wheel and can choose whether you want to go up or down.

What unfortunately happens in many cases is what I call "the slip." The slip from stage 3 to stage 4 can be quite subtle, especially if you ignore or wallow in your symptoms. Many people in Lagos may choose to ignore symptoms like sleep deprivation which can lead to heart attack, diabetes and obesity, two out of which are top causes of death in Nigeria.

I know right! I didn't believe it either. Lack of sleep actually leads to obesity. It's a bit of biology but the gist is sleeping controls the appetite hormones and when you don't enough sleep, this affects those hormones. (I'll add the link to our sources in case you're interested in reading more)

Wallowing is not a better choice. If you make your struggles your identity, then they will eventually become it whether you like it or not. You cannot be saying, 'I don't know why I just like to isolate myself.' without taking tangible steps. I like to think of stage 3 as a hard point in a rock-climbing experience, you can take the easy way out and drop down or you can climb and enjoy the view from the top.

image credit: aessoil.com

The next stage is 4 - mental health illness or disorder.

Remember that definition from before. Yh. This is where it applies.

"a mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function." - Mayo Clinic

The difference between stage 3 and stage 4 is control. At this point, it seems like you are losing it and you feel that your condition is more powerful than you are. If before, you could cheer yourself up by watching a bunch of comedy skits, you start to realize that even those don't work as well as before.

This is where the illness sometimes begins to trigger biological responses that can't be controlled by mere will. Unfortunately, this often leads to dependency on some sort of suppressant or acting out due to lack of suppressants. From constantly going out so you don't have to be alone with your thoughts and binge-watching series upon series to distract yourself to the cutting habit we see on TV, irrational behaviour, severe mood swings, dependency on drugs and suicidal thoughts. Even being on the phone a lot could be a symptom of a mental health struggle with low self-esteem. The preference of a virtual world to the physical so that we don't have to deal with reality or what we perceive to be reality. These suppressants are addictive because they help us forget or escape temporarily. When the effects wear off, we're back at them.

This is the part that's unfortunately commonly displayed on media.

At this point, you may feel that Kamikun has just been throwing words in our faces but in the final piece of this series, I'll share my experience with mental health and how I'm overcoming my chronic people shyness and then we'll explore methods to which we can overcome the struggles we face through practical steps and regain control of our mental health.

Thank you for reading.

I hope you found today's post educative.

If you did, don't forget to support the blog by sharing with your friends, families and on your socials.

Got a thought or question? You can leave it in the comment section below.

See you next time.

✌🏽 & 💝.

Kami.

Have you read my last post: Partnerships in the church, is the gospel spreading fast enough?

Or if you're looking for something lighter, I'd suggest Daddy's Girl, a love letter from a princess of Zion.

Sources for today's post:

Mayo Clinic: Symptoms and Causes of Mental Illness

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/mental-illness/symptoms-causes/syc-20374968