Bad news, poverty get SA down

● Violence, poverty and racial tensions are among the factors fuelling depression and anxiety, according to experts.

South African Depression and Anxiety Group operations director Cassey Chambers said the organisation receives 600 calls a day from stressed people.

“I think it is a very difficult time for more South Africans — there is more pressure, more stress, less support, more family issues, trauma, and financial issues,” Chambers said. “These are all contributing to people feeling more helpless and hopeless.”

Katherine Sorsdahl, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Cape Town’s Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health, said one major study showed that 30% of people have had or will have disorders such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse at some point in their lives.

A Durban GP, Karin Morrow, said many of her patients were worrying about losing their property investments due to the ANC’s decision to allow expropriation of land without compensation.

“A number of patients have become deliberate ostriches … they don’t read any news, and avoid listening to bad news,” she said. “Others have adopted a defeatist, fatalistic attitude to the collapse happening around them.”

Psychologist Geordie Pilkington said: “Poverty creates more suffering for people who have mental illnesses. Crime often is accompanied by violent trauma and this can be overwhelming for some people. The recession has impacted on millions of South Africans … Certain demographics believe they are unemployable, and this can erode self-worth.

“The sociopolitical transition South Africans are grappling with sometimes makes us feel we are doomed to racial hatred and inequality.”

Sorsdahl said the ideal treatment package was a combination of medication and talk therapy. “However, in SA we have very low coverage of any form of treatment.”