Depression vector created by pch.vector - www.freepik.com and Inkscape.org
When a Nigerian is depressed, their life is threatened by chronic disease. The person fears for his/her life due to this disease.
When Nigerians get depressed, it is typically a woman who just gave birth. She just gave birth to a girl and there are sexual preferences for male babies. She gave birth and she is having postpartum depression.
When a Nigerian gets depressed there is domestic abuse, a woman is beaten up and stays in the relationship because of the cultural background she found herself in.
Hello Everyone, My name is Ebingo Kigigha and I'm an aspiring Psychiatrist. I usually write about Mental Health on my page when I'm not goofing around. Today I'll be discussing how common depression is in Nigeria.
People who are depressed have described their ordeal, saying "it like living in darkness" or "foreseeing problems that they can't control". Depression changes one's ideas, emotions, and capacity to do daily activities. The likelihood that you have depression increases with the frequency, severity, and length of your symptoms. There are many signs and symptoms of depression that we can detect in ourselves as well as in others. A significant risk factor for suicide is depression.
When a person who is depressed says things that create suspicions of threats to their life, it should be taken very seriously. Taking action and finding help for them could save their lives
The topic is When Nigerians Get depressed and I developed it from an article I read about depression in Nigeria.
322 million individuals worldwide suffer from depression, a mental health condition that has caused many deaths. A sad effect, loss of interest or pleasure, less energy, feelings of guilt or poor self-worth, disturbed sleep or eating, and difficulty focusing are some of the symptoms. In addition, it hinders a person's ability to function and carry out everyday tasks and may even lead to suicide.
Many people don't know how common Depression is in the country
Depression, which has a prevalence of 3.9 per cent in Nigeria and is a matter of importance, affects 7 million people in the country.
On the other hand, numerous examinations conducted across a wide variety of groups have uncovered a substantially higher incidence of occurrence. According to research carried out, a quarter of young people, twenty-six point two per cent of old people, and seventeen point seven per cent of people living in internally displaced communities experience depression at some point in their lives.
According to research conducted all around the country, people living with HIV/AIDS had an incidence of depression ranging from 20% to 59%, with North-Central Nigeria reporting the highest frequency.
According to the findings of a study that was conducted in Western Nigeria in 2013, close to 45 per cent of clinical patients suffer from depression.
Considering that these were values that were all gathered before the pandemic, I suspect that these values should be significantly higher.
In 2016 the WTOP New website ranked Nigeria among the top 10 depressed countries. In that same year, Nigeria was also ranked top 10 in anxiety. However, a more recent ranking has placed countries in the middle east higher on the scale. ^
According to the findings of other studies conducted on persons who suffer from chronic diseases such as stroke, leprosy, and epilepsy, the prevalence rate ranges anywhere from 27.5% to 46.5%.
The high rates of depression that are routinely reported among these groups imply that they are among those who are most likely to encounter difficulty.
During my postings in Internal Medicine, I saw somewhere between 60 to 80 neurology cases, most of them were stroke and epilepsy patients.
One male patient I found very peculiar was one who even at the physical disadvantage of not being able to move half his body (Stroke) was still physically abusive towards his wife. I don't condone his behaviour I just find it noteworthy that literature points to these cases of male patterns of depression where anger is used as a more acceptable way to express depression.
It creates a vicious cycle where the man's depression creates depression and anxiety for the rest of the family.
Tips
Exercise is such an anti-depressant effect. researchers are yet to discover why but getting your body involved in an activity like exercise acts has such a positive effect on those dealing with depression.
The particular exercise usually is not as important as the fact that you are actively engaging in it.
Considering that exercise plays such a big role in mental health and physical health in many studies I give it my biggest vote of confidence.
If you find yourself stuck and things that make you really happy are no longer finding a good place to land on...try exercising. It would be helpful to stay consistent but for more severe forms of depression even getting up from bed could do the trick.
In conclusion
Depression is more common than many Nigerians think. News studies need to be made accessible to the public concerning statistics of depression.
As always, paying attention to the warning signs of depression can help save a life.
Hive stories
I did a search on the word depression on Hive and I found a lot of interesting stories about how people cope with depression in the #emotions and feelings community. I wrote to some of the writers there to see if I can feature some of their stories in my daily blog posts.
My hope is that from the stories of these amazing people we all can learn how to deal with our emotions and become better people.
Questions
- How best can you describe 7 million people?
- Why do you think those with depression choose suicide as an escape?
- Why symptoms of depression have you seen in people?
- What symptoms of depression do you see in yourself?
- What do you recommend I write about?
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