According to statistics, about 7% of adults are diagnosed with depression and about 19.1% having anxiety. This might look like a small percentage but the numbers are actually huge looking at the population of the world. Depression and anxiety rate have spiked so much in recent times and it’s really alarming.
Now, narrowing it down to Ghana where I live, I would say the average Ghanaian suffers depression about 3 out of 4 weeks in the month. Things are hard in Ghana, the system is not working and there’s so much pressure on the youth. Waking up everyday and trying to make it through the day while trying to secure a good future in a country where everything works against you isn’t an easy task.
Everyone goes through stuff at some point in their lives but how many of us are able to open up and talk about them. Here in Ghana, we are told men don’t cry and this has been etched in the minds of our male children to the extent that majority of them don’t even express their emotions most at time. Looking towards females, they tell us women need to be patient and we need to pray for things to work out for us. Young girls are being pressured to get married and women in marriages are also being advised to stay patient in their abusive relationships because what would people say if you leave your marriage? What happens to the kids?
All these things play a role in the high rate of depression. Personally, I battled anxiety and depression for many years until I took the step to actually voice out and seek for help. The worst part of all this is that, no one really pays attention to depression. They just tell you to go out more and you’d be fine. You’d be surprised that some men who go for therapy end up being made fun of by their family or even friends. It’s more like everyone from this side cares less about mental health.
Recently, things have started to get a lot better as people are starting to embrace the whole idea of therapy and speaking more on mental health. With this , I’m hoping that in a few years to come things would be much better when it comes to mental health in general in Ghana. Mental health is very important and as individuals we need to pay much attention to our mental health because I believe your mental health is what drives everything you do.
Don’t sit and wait for a miracle to happen soon. Seek help today!
all images belong to me.
