Rising cases of suicide and national rethink on issues of mental health

Now, it is obvious, even to the blind in Nigeria that mental illness is real, going by the number of young and old people taking their own lives.

Just few days ago, a young pastor formerly with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Michael Arowosaiye, trended on social media for all the wrong reason. He was said to have committed suicide because he could not pay his rent.

Here is what he allegedly left as a suicide note: “I have been going through trauma for the past two years now. My financial instability has cost me a lot of shame. I have written to the regional pastor here in Abuja and some pastors to help out in my financial situation but everyone seems to be quiet about this matter. The best thing is to take my life and let me rest in heaven where I can find peace.”

Few hours however, after the news broke, another version of the story quickly popped up on social media platforms as real reason why the former RCCG pastor committed suicide, linking it to a purported nude photo of him that surfaced on social media. Whichever version is the real reason, fact remains that the young pastor committed suicide, which is tragic.

Pastor Arowosaiye was indeed the third person in a week reported to have committed suicide, a situation that is quite unbecoming and so worrisome.

Before his case, Nigerians were still trying to come to terms with why a final year student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Chukwuemeka Akachi, would take his own life.

Akachi, a first class student of English and Literary Studies, in a Facebook note he was said to have left before the act, wrote about his inability to continue staying on life support. He said he had been battling with mental problem, and had been hooked on life support.

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Incidentally, Akachi’s was the seventh reported case of Nigerian undergraduates that felt frustrated enough to take their own lives. It was also the second case that would be recorded at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) between 2012 and 2019.

Onyebuchi Okonkwo was studying physics and astronomy at the UNN and was in his third year when he hanged himself on the school premises.

Another incident happened on April 7, 2014 when one Auwal Haruna, 30, a student of the Taraba State University studying at the Nigerian Law School in Abuja, was found complicit in the murder of his father, Mohammed, and so stringed himself up in a hotel room when he went to Taraba.

Between 2017 and 2018, no fewer than seven incidents involving varsity students taking their own lives reportedly occured over a range of reasons, including depression occasioned by family problem, broken relationship, mental health, examination failure and rejection by a lover.

Poor academic performance also allegedly led to two cases at the Obafemi Awolowo University between 2017 and 2019.

The two methods the suicides mostly use are hanging and poisoning by an insecticide known as Sniper. In fact, more than 90 percent of the cases reported involve Sniper or other poison, a choice of both male and female, although female cases are rare. And we should also not forget that others are taking to jumping into the lagoon.

Now, if we understand that good mental health means being generally able to think, feel and react in the ways that you need and want to live your life, it goes without saying that you are going through a period of poor mental health when you find the ways you’re frequently thinking, feeling or reacting become difficult, or even impossible to cope with. And this can feel just as bad as a physical illness, or even worse.

In many ways, actually, and according to experts, mental health is just like physical health – everybody has it and really need to take care of it.

Mental health problems, which, as a matter of fact, could destabilise a person more than HIV, heart disease, accidents, and wars combined, is said to affect around one in four people in any given year.

A recent World Health Organisation’s (WHO) suicide ranking showed that 800,000 people die globally from suicide every year, with 15.1 suicides per 100,000 people annually.

Nigeria ranks 30th most suicide-prone country out of 183 nations in the world and is also the 10th African country with a higher rate of suicide, coming ahead of Togo (26th), Sierra Leone (11th), Angola (19th), Equatorial Guinea (7th), Burkina Faso (22nd) and Cote d’Ivoire (fifth).

Within Nigeria, Lagos is leading other states in this direction with 15 reported cases. And it’s likely that undergraduates will be swelling the rank in the demographics of Nigerians prone to suicide, having recorded about 11 incidents in less than three years.

As of May 2019, the rate reportedly increased to about 90 percent of the total cases over the two previous years. And causes range from common problems such as depression and anxiety, to rarer problems such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Experts say, there are many different mental disorders with different presentations and are generally characterised by a combination of abnormal thoughts, perceptions, emotions, behaviour and relationships with others among them depression, bipolar affective disorder, schizophrenia and other psychoses, dementia, intellectual disabilities and developmental disorders, including autism.

Mr. Eddie Osuagwu, a diplomate in addictions counseling and a licensed professional counselor by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors in the United States of America, in reacting to the recurring incidents of suicide cases in Nigeria, said several reasons could be responsible.

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First is generalized anxiety and depression, which he said could be apprehensive expectation as the individual tends to find it difficult to manage the issues at hand. He may have sleep disturbance, minimal or diminished desire for pleasure, psychomotor agitation, diminished ability to think positively, recurrent wish or thoughts of death and prior suicide ideation without clear cut plans, etc.

Another plausible contribution to the situation, said Osuagwu, who is the founder of Ample Health Services, a mental health clinic in Mesquite, Texas, could be peer pressure, low self-esteem, parental pressures, fear of failure and general feeling of “what to be like others,” otherwise  they do feel life is not worth living.

Such individuals sometimes have very low confidence in their ability to bounce back and no one to work through the situation with them, Osuagwu said, adding that other aspects, generated after psychosocial assessment, must be looked at. More importantly, one has to look for changes in the life style of those with identified traces.

“Pay attention to comments like, ‘if this or that happens, I will kill myself. Have someone intervene in the situation, have family and friends confront an unusual behavior or comments. There are behavioral changes following such loss of interest in things – question on them. If they drink alcohol or abuse illicit drugs, make sure they don’t have access to them,” Osuagwu admonished.

According to him, if the signs and symptoms of suicide are caught early, psychotherapy could provide relief, just as in many instances, measured medication will provide immediate intervention.

In some cases however, some professionals suggest that chemical imbalance in the brain and heredity play some roles in suicide.

But while most Nigerians still live in denial of mental illness, about 30 per cent of the people actually suffer one form of this disorder or the other, and this is according to the federal government through the Federal Ministry of Health.

In another development, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that over 24 million Nigerians may suffer from various mental illnesses, a situation worsened by the dismal number of health institutions and professionals in the country.

The disorder, WHO argued, is more pronounced in the insurgency-ravaged states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe with 650, 000 patients.

The frightening revelation was contained in the global agency’s 2018 report released at a workshop on health reporting during emergencies in Yola.

The document observed that with the prevalence of mental disorder among Nigerians put at 12.1 per cent, many people from the North East might suffer one form of the disease or the other.

Now, add that to what is happening elsewhere in the country and you will understand why Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Abdulaziz Abdullahi, had during the Mental Health Action Committee and Stakeholders’ Workshop in Abuja, November last year, lamented that with a population of about 200 million, Nigeria had a high rate of mental illness with about 60 million persons falling in the category.

Sadly, not much attention is paid to mental health disorders in the country even as the level of public awareness is understandably poor, with lots of misconceptions.

Considering the current economic situation and in the light of recent suicidal episodes recorded in some parts of the country, there should be a rethink in the nation’s general attitudes to mental health. Questions about the current maintenance of the status quo should be raised. Many people are so depressed, oppressed and frustrated that at the slightest provocation, they could snap.

If you drive around major cities, especially in places like Lagos, the bulk of people you see on the streets behave so abnormally to the point you easily conclude that they have lost their minds.

Practically everywhere you go, be it in government offices, private offices, schools, Churches, shrine, Police Stations, Mosques, Clubs, Hotel, Bars, Markets, you will be amazed at the sort of behavior that people display most of which now seem to be part of the system. And that is so scary, to a sane mine.

So, considering that some individuals that commit suicide tend not to give enough time for close family and\or friends to take them seriously as they may be seen as someone “seeking attention,” it is advisable that all signs and symptoms are taken seriously. Who knows, you may be saving a life.