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Sir,
Even though positive strides have been made towards understanding mental illness and bridging the knowledge gap between the informed and the uninformed, misconceptions about mental health issues continue to place inflicted individuals in psychological isolation and detachment from loved ones.
Misconceptions
Bearing misconceptions and inaccurate knowledge about something that someone is going through is according to me, proportionally far worse and probably more destructive than constructive in attempting to assist people with issues that relate to an issue such as mental illness.
Principally, the complexity to understand mental illness stems from the fact that it is largely an ‘abstract’ concept - loosely, it cannot be seen or touched - and on that basis, I believe it falls behind less abstract conditions of individual health.
Facilitator
This is also another facilitator of all the inaccurate comments, opinions and understanding of what mental illness really is.
It is not always the case that someone uses mental illness as an excuse to get attention or to be sort of ‘fashionable’.
Many young people have their psychological inflictions passed off as ‘attention-seeking’ strategies, sometimes even by those closest to them; and because of this, families tend to downplay and undervalue the extent of the psychological strife the individual may be going through – without even taking into consideration what the reality could be.
Mental illnesses unfortunately do not have ‘on and off’ switches. Apparently, this is the line of thinking that many people in our society still choose to employ. Passive comments like ‘stop thinking about it’, or ‘don’t be sad’, actually do nothing to help the person you are telling this to, but instead breeds embarrassment and guilt in the individual who is already in a psychological battle.
R L
Comments
Sir,
The rate of people taking advantage and manipulating the country seems to be escalating every minute of the day. Our country is in a crisis due to those who think of their greed and satisfaction, never bothering to think about the nation at large. What exactly am I referring to when I say a broken society? Am I talking of the rife murders, crime injustice and all? In a nutshell, I’m actually referring to all the wrongdoings happening around us. We have a Parliament which tends to help solve some unlawful situations that happen to befall us every now and then. We also have a police service which is trying by all means to help society fight crime. Not to mention church denominations and societal committees which also fight against crime, but in vain.
I’m not saying make the laws more stringent or any tighter. It doesn’t help because the public seemingly hates authority. Don’t make the laws to be tyrants, oppressing the people. We need not be pushed back against the laws. Where exactly is this going? What I’m trying to translate to society is that all we need is self introspection and integrity from within.
Back then, in the times of kagogo, all that was happening was in correct order because of the unity and morality within people. Nowadays, things tend to happen so fast simply because of societal decay. With the rise of social media, people have become self absorbed and disconnected from their communities. Society only thrives when individuals have empathy for others - something that is rapidly being lost.
So, a broken society is a theme documenting violent crime, child neglect, teenage pregnancy and beneficial cheats, which are all proof of the widespread social decay. Some argue that a broken society is a myth. In a global context, Eswatini is one of the safest countries in the world, thus focusing on individual crimes gives us a warped view of reality.
Do we want to live in a cultural liberation that displaces traditional manners and morals, or do we want to live in a legal revolution that emphasises individual rights instead of responsibilities? That’s just up to us; we have to man-up and act on everything demolishing our lovely county.
Lungiswa Malaza