Let us talk about mental health within our families and communities.
How many of us know what is mental health?
Mental health refers to our cognitive, behavioral, and emotional wellbeing – it is all about how we think, feel, and behave.
One of the major effect of mental health is depression which is increasing in Kenya day by day and we can attribute it to the increase in mental problems in the country currently.
Let’s dissect on how we can reduce the situation.
Conversations about mental health should start at the family level.
It’s normal for the family dynamic to change when one family member is diagnosed with a serious mental illness
However, it will probably take some time to accept those changes and establish a new routine.
How does family determine a person’s mental health?
Adverse childhood experiences such as psychological abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse in homes have been the main predispositions to post traumatic disorders in adulthood especially where families do not intervene and stigmatize the affected.
Most people’s first contact with the world and life is through the family. So the mental health of family members directly affects everyone belonging to it because they’re connected both by blood & emotion.
Mental illness results to painful and traumatic time for a family and this results to huge impact on family’s financial component.
Having someone you love act violently towards you or someone in your family will always have a negative effect on your mental health. It is not uncommon for people who are subject to violence at home to suffer from mental health.
Not sure if you or someone you know is living with mental health problems?
Experiencing one or more of the following feelings or behaviors can be an early warning sign of a problem:
- Eating or sleeping too much or too little
- Pulling away from people and usual activities
- Having low or no energy
- Feeling numb or like nothing matters
- Having unexplained aches and pains
- Feeling helpless or hopeless
- Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual
- Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
- Yelling or fighting with family and friends
- Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
- Having persistent thoughts and memories you can’t get out of your head
- Hearing voices or believing things that are not true
- Thinking of harming yourself or others
- Inability to perform daily tasks like taking care of your kids or getting to work or school
The family members should not criticise the patient because of behaviour change during illness but they should be a pillar to lean on in such times.
The family should give love and support to the affected family member.This will speed up their recovery.