You are not alone!

Flourish was an accounting student at the prestigious University of Lagos, a happy girl who was glad to have gotten admission at just the first trial. Her excitement was evident in all that she did. She was faced with the struggles that came with being in a higher institution, some of which she was nonchalant about. The first year came and went and the results were not so pleasant. She was sad about it and made up her mind to do better, the second year went well but her best was not good enough so she still failed some courses. At the beginning of her third year, Flourish realized she was on probation and so needed to repeat the second year, this news weighed her down and she got depressed, she became withdrawn and socialized less, she could not get enough sleep which made her fall sick often and kept telling her friend that if anything happened to her, they should know she is tired of school and life in general….” At this point, she had suicidal thoughts.

Like Flourish, everyone goes through a mental health breakdown due to failure at work or school, loss of a loved one or valuables, history of abuse or anything else that could be traumatizing  Mental health issues appear in various forms and the individuals involved may not know about it. The signs may be temporary or long-lasting but with the right people, you can get over it. Flourish eventually got help because she was surrounded by people who counselled her and encouraged her that it was not the end for her.

You are certainly not alone, mental health issues can happen to anyone at any time, there is no face to it as one could even be smiling while going through mental issues. However, it is important to surround yourself with positive people and also be a positive person to the people around you.

Written by TEAM ALPHA of the SIMBIHealth Advocacy Project.