Mental Health Literacy, Its Stigmas and the Nigerian Youth
By: Josmat Jerry
When one talk of the most active group of people who are well filled with energy, passion deal and desires to achieve whatsoever they have interest in, the phrase ‘youth’ pops up one’s mind. Youths are very much dynamic and flexible to changes around them, changes mentioned here can be of variables effect like family, peer group, environment, the way such an individual perceive things and the likes, these changes comes in to make or mar the life activities of youth and their entire career afterwards. The bedrock of most changes in them affiliates to mental health and its cognition which its effect spurs out stigma as a result of its aftermath.
Mental health literacy is a context that get to express the condition or state of the human cognitive process and mind via what it receive, interpret, decode, transport and send in to other body parts system which later on result to spur out some kind of changes in such an individual way of life, character and attitudes. The dire impact of these new changes, which can either be of positive or negative, tells more of what to be in expectant of from such an individual. Dwelling on the negatives, the impact of those changes will stand to serve as a mark or sign which when cleaned off remain die hard, this mark or sign is what is been referred to as Stigma.
The Nigerian youth have recently been engrossed with quite some styles, ways and attitudes which really questions the mental health state they possess, the dressing mode displayed by this group is at the top of matters that concerns. Why will you decide to pull of your bet and decide to sag your trousers, we all know the bet is meant to hold the trouser tightened to the waist, its only someone affected mentally who can display such an act. The act of putting on transparent dress or tight ones in order to stylishly lure and catch the other sex attention to fornication is an act that questions the cognitive ability of such an individual.
Every sort of act that negates the norms and normalcy of a sane society can be categorized as an insane act. Such attitudes which are not in conformity with acts expected from a responsible youth are one that are of mental deficiencies. The use of ear rings by some males questions the way these individual thinks and view things or why will you decide to use things which are solely meant for the opposite sex. The manner of talking and responding to conversations of some youth are very much disheartening which leaves one to wonder what drives on in such an individual’s mind. The only label that can be attached to these is insanity which is also of a mental issue.
Smoking, the use of hard drugs, late night walks, fornication, a thuggery kind of life, parading an unkept hair, bleaching of skin, engaging in activities that declines the life span, all sort of immoralities and many more are all actions the Nigerian Youth engage in which questions the condition their mind works and their mental and sense of reasoning. The mental health literacy is an issue that need to fly all around, both by and large as the society is being filled with the result of abnormal sense of perception and disordered reasoning ability.
Acts displayed by the Nigerian youths which are not in line with sanity comes back afterwards to back fire and play out its effect in their lines. These permanent effects can be tagged as ‘Stigma’. The first impression one have on an individual is what one carries till life time, even if such an individual later on have a change of mind, there will still be scars left to show forth the effect of past wrongs. A person the society had tagged as a bad individual due to some insane act, such a stigma can never be cleaned off even if that particular individual change his/her attitude later on.
What is left to live with and have regret on at the later end is what stigma represents, it displays the result of a past life which was lived wrongly as a result of mental health disorder. Dressing in a transparent manner which later on lead to getting raped, the aftermath effect of such rape leaves a scar and stigma on such a victim. Many Nigerian youth fall into this evil pit all due to family background and setting, broken homes, effect of bad influence by peer group or other sort of dark minded individual, the environment such a youth lives, the inability to cater for his/her basic needs and the likes, all these are what causes the insane mind which are of mental health literacy dilemma.
The use of hard drugs and smoking are what later on lead to serious implications like loss of memory, acting out of no sense, needing a psychiatrist heath medication which are very serious conditions. All these are stigma to such an individual which are of great effect of his/her wellbeing. Mental health literacy is of needful and must be impacted into the minds of the Nigerian youth on the need to act and reason responsibly so as to be useful for themselves and their respective family and also to bring honour to Nigeria as a whole.
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