Expats should not ignore mental health

Living in a big city without a support system can make one vulnerable to depression, expert says

Suchitra Bajpai Chaudhary

An unfortunate fallout of urbanisation and rapid progress is often the deteriorating mental health of people who hold the seams of a city together.

According to the World Health Organisation, mental health issues could be a major cause of death and disability by 2020. As a fast-growing city like Dubai reaches new heights of urbanisation, the expatriate population, especially people compelled to stay away from their families for long periods, could experience depression.

Take the case of Sam P, a salesman from Kerala, who came to the UAE in 2011 to earn a living, leaving his wife and infant son behind. “I was compelled to turn into a bachelor and rent bed-space here. My parents are old and I cannot afford to sponsor my family. I have missed out on so many milestones in my two-yearold son’s life. I have gone home only once in two years ... I feel stressed and lonely.”

He has been attending counselling sessions with a community psychologist.

The suicide rate among Asian expatriates, particularly from the Indian community, have been climbing. Those deprived of normal family situations find it difficult to vent the frustrations they experience at the workplace.

According to the Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC), 174 Indians committed suicide in 2007, but a counselling programme reduced this number to 72 in 2014.

Causes

There is a lack of awareness that mental health needs to be tackled with medical intervention. Stress and loneliness are affect the mental equilibrium of people, Dr Saliha Afridi, clinical psychologist and managing director at the Light House Arabia, said.

At her clinic, Dr Afridi treats cases of adjustment disorder with anxiety or depression (or both), relationship problems (marital therapy), anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse.

“These disorders are seen in children as well as adults who come to our clinic. These disorders have a biological, a psychological, and a social component,” she explained.

While no specific data is available, health specialists who spoke at the first UAE conference on mental health in primary care held in 2010, agreed that mental health issues are on the rise. Dr Mona Kuwari, director of primary health at the Ministry of Health, spoke about cases of depression and patients reporting symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches and a lack of sleep.

She added that depression was offset by a host of internal and external stresses, genetic factors and biological changes in the brain.

Who is at risk?

Individuals who live alone in the UAE are probably most at risk unless they establish a network and a rhythm to their daily lives. However, there is also a genetic factor to mental illnesses and expatriates who lack the skills to cope with the demands of rapid change tend to struggle with these disorders.

There is often a stigma attached to mental illness and people feel they will be perceived as ‘crazy’ if they seek help for mental health issues.

A psychologist can help the patient understand the triggers and provide coping strategies, while the psychiatrist is required when a patient is symptomatic and might require prescription medication. Dr Afridi said: “Not only does mental illness affect your personal and professional life, it greatly reduces the quality of one’s life. It is like carrying around a heavy ball and chain, which weighs you down and goes every where you go until you make a commitment to sit down and address it.

“The bottom line is that no one should think that they have to live with mental illness/disorder as modern medicine has a treatment for it.”

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