SRHIN AFRICA Website
“How much worse could life get?”, Kate wondered. To her, people were just ravaging lions waiting for the next available opportunity to ridicule and stigmatize the weak. Unfortunately for her, she had joined the “weak gang” and she could fully understand the pains and the travails of being ridiculed and stigmatized. She had always been a “church girl”, always on the good side of people, including family, never going against laid down rules and regulations and always surrounded by young people who wanted to learn from her. But it only took one mistake to become the cast-away, the judged, the rejected and the leprous.
As a young teenager who had made the painful mistake of getting pregnant for an irresponsible teenager like herself, Kate could feel her mental sanity slipping away. There was just no one that she could turn to for help or encouragement. Her family had disowned her, her church friends had been warned to stay off her for fear of bad influence and her friends and relatives didn’t deem her worthy anymore to associate with them. She understood and accepted that she had disappointed them, but she also knew that this was one phase of her life that she needed all the emotional strength she could get, both from family and friends; too bad none was forthcoming. To Kate, she knew that this stigmatization was not just a temporary factor and she couldn’t bear the thought of being ridiculed, gazed at, laughed at, discriminated against, stigmatized and scorned. That was why her last resort was to commit suicide and by then, it was too late for anybody to help out. All her family and friends could only live in guilt and regret.
Looking at Kate, we can see the ‘repercussion’ effects of stigmatization on mental health. Because our mental health can be very fragile, stigmatization can lead to acute depression, which in turn damages our mental stability. Stigmatization can also cause feelings of hopelessness, which could be dangerous to our mental health and which could also stir up suicidal thoughts. People undergoing any form of stigmatization or discrimination should be referred to therapists and should also be kept away from any sort of isolation. Engage them in meaningful and purposeful activities and make them aware that their challenges have been experienced by someone out there and there is always a viable solution.
As a community, it is our sole duty to look out for one another, encourage one another and also help out in any way possible. We should also create as much awareness as possible on the implications of stigmatization on a person’s mental health. People should be made to understand that stable mental health is as important as stable physical health, if not more important. We should all say no to any form of stigmatization and give way to a happier, healthier and more fulfilled life.
Written By; Chukwudi Kaito
Team Delta, SIMBIHealth Advocacy Project.