Humanity

Understanding Depression In Nigeria

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Depression according to American Psychiatric Association; Is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act.

Depression is an illness that affects most individuals of various ages, various genders and cultures.

As much as it is deadly this illness is very treatable and curable. There are numerous symtomps of depression;

  • Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
  • Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
  • Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
  • Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
  • Loss of energy or increased fatigue
  • Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others)
  • Feeling worthless or guilty
  • Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
  • Thoughts of death or suicide

Although, these symptoms need to lasts for up to 2 weeks for the person to be fully diagnoised with depression.

Causes

Depression is absolutely different from the feeling of loss, grief, pain or sadness. And is caused by many factoes, personality, environment, genetics, biochemistry.

Depression In Nigeria

Many Nigerians suffer from depression. Although, may refuse to acknowledge this out of fear prejudice. Many Nigerians say that theres no such thing as depression and as thus many don’t speak up whenever they feel down.

Similar to our previous post “I AM FINE“, many answer questions with the simple answer “I am fine“.

Most of the time people answer this way because they know the person asking doing really care. However, individuals suffer slowly concealing problem causing them to suffer and emotionally die.

It has become the trend for Nigerians to cut people off for one silly reason or the other, when they feel the other doesn’t call to check on them or doesn’t respond to messages.

When on the contrary, the other person may be going through one issue or the other but is too scared to speak up.

Everyone has a person they feel comfortable with, a person that they know will always be there for them.

Whichever way you feel, it is highly advisable for a person to get the help they require and need.