The Nation Newspaper

Tag: depression

  • Take aways from some challenges of 2018 (1)

    From a romance with some emotional flashpoints of 2018, we are back to the Terra firma of 2019. But before we settle in comfortably, we may profit from casting a last glance at some of what may be called takeaways from that past year which are no give aways of faces behind the screens or masks. Depression raged into 2019. So did vaginal and uterine questions. Men were not firebrands but talkatives before the flaming Juliets. Many people complained about nerve problems. Arthritis kept striking. Cancer stung. Candida was unyielding. Vision faded. The prostate gland, the waterloo of many men, proved too heady to be forgotten. We cannot forget the liver. It is too connected with life to be kept in the back seat of healthcare. So are the kidneys and the intestines. Troublesome as 2018 was, you and I have everything to be thankful that we made it to 2019.

    Depression

    More people sank full weight into the abyss than managed to escape from the quagmire. Was it caused by something else or the economy? Some people mention a cosmic factor so well spoken about in the last few years. Anyone who does not fill his or her earthly existence with only bread and butter ways and means would have long heard that strange things were happening all around us. I was a high schoolboy when I read about Carl Sagan, the astrophysicist. When he and his comrades did not scare or excite us about the possibility of beings like us in outer space visiting us and even stealing some of us to study them back home, like animals in a zoological garden, they let us know that a new cosmic hour has struck. What do I mean by this? The answer should be clear if we recall the picture of our table or wall clock, or the wristwatch. Knowledgeable people of old followed the pattern of a cosmic clock to design it. This you can see in the astrological zodiac signs or signs of the stars.They plotted the pathways of the stars to arrive at those 12 signs …Taurus, Pisces, Leo,Virgo, e.t.c. We see a semblance of this in the 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night in many parts of the earth.We see it reflected, also, in the 12 months of the year (even the Yoruba calendar agrees with the Gregorian calendar). We see it impacted on the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples of Jesus.While it takes movement of the earth around the sun to record one earth year, it takes the movement of the earth in another form to cross from one hour mark in another form about 2,600 earth years to cross from one cosmic year or one cosmic age. In a new cosmic age, strange things are expected to happen on earth. It is as though the earth comes under more powerful etheric influences than before. And it doesn’t happen without a warning or signal.Carl Sagan proved to us that fish was falling with rain.This, it is said, is to tell us that we were in the AQUARIUM AGE, the Age of water. We cannot talk about this now. Fish falling with rain startled many people,including the scientists. Where did the fish come from? Some said fish eggs were evaporated and matured and hatched in the clouds. Others laughed at this conception. Evaporation of fish egg or inducting it upwards into the atmosphere would have to act against the present,but not necessarily correct, understanding of the Law of Gravity, which speaks of a force in the middle of the earth pulling everything down to the earth and holding it fast there. With the conception of evaporation defeated, that of biogenesis popped up.

    The prevailing conception of how everything which existed came about was “like begetting like”, man begetting man, fish begetting fish, also called biogenesis. Abiogenesis says something can come out of nothingness. At best, it concedes that “ethers” or etheric substances gave rise to different entities under different situations. As a young man, I showed interest in ALCHEMY when I read that alchemists turn sand into gold grains, using this knowledge. Now,we can put the cosmic sign of fish falling with rain to radiated images from the world beyond which became densified for us earth people to perceive in this gross material sphere of the cosmos. As the age of the air released the secret of the air, bringing such dumbfounding experiences then of, say, telephony, television, GSM, Wasap, Facebook, communication with the moon etc and the rest of them, so is the Age of water expected to startle earthly inhabitants. It would impact more pressure on the kernel of man, the spirit. It will remind us that our being on earth is not by accident ,that the earth is a school,that every age is like a higher level in the spiritual educational system. We can guess what it may feel like to move from high school to the university a student fit only for junior high school. The spiritual school is all about power. If the human spirit was unable to bear the radiations or currents under which existence must occur at a lower age,has to carry over lower class deficits to a higher class, then the higher magnitude of Vibrations in this higher age would simply scorch it like chicken beaten by rain or ice cubes in the scorching tropical sun, or like a candle stick ongthe hot oven burner. This picture can be repainted as a preterm foetus brought forth from an agitated womb without the prospect of shelter in an incubation.Christians speak of Three Ages… age ofvthe Father, age of the Son and age of the Holy Spirit.

    If we plot trajectory, we find slightly more than 2000 years between each age. Abraham represented the age of the Father, Jesus age of the son. Jesus warned that sins against the holy spirit will not be forgiven, and that the holy spirit would come after he had returned to the father to reprove the world of sin and to proclaim the judgement. In 1996 or thereabout, I read an interesting book by Tom Kayan American journalist, titled: DOOMS DAY  1999, in which he recalled end-time prophecies made over many generations, a recurring decimal of which was a sun bigger than our own and outshining it thousand folds.The power of this star,which some spiritual circles say is a huge comet is what is believed would facilitate the judgement in many ways including destruction of FALSEHOOD in all economies, human relationships, human ideas, religion etc. Some people believe this Star is already on its way and that the aggravation of all events in number and quantum over the shortest time spans ever is due to its power which has already encompassed the earth. Thus,anyone who is not inwardly good and strong enough to bear this power and be uplifted by it would be scorched and inwardly cold, lapse into depression. More about this later.

    Our Cosmos or universe has arrived at a cosmic turning point.This means it has completed the revolution around the power  in its centre which holds it together just as the planets of our solar systems individually complete their revolutions around the sun,the central power which holds them together.The cosmos or universe is made of trillions  upon trillions of solar systems which are divided into trillions of trillions of galaxies. Our solar system belongs to the milky way galaxy.Together with the uncountable number of galaxies, we have just completed a revolution around the central authority which holds us all together. If we are not held together, we will fly away in different directions, collide with one another and be all destroyed, making nonsense of our effort to exist conciously and in peace and happiness.This will usher our universe, galaxy and  planet earth into a new season and a higher energy potential we earth dwellers individually or collectively may not be inwardly mature for or prepared for. Here, the energy voltage is much,much higher than we were used to. That is a major reason given for the increasing rate of depression all over the earth today.The spirit, the inner kernel of earthman, gave rise to its earthly body which serves it as a cloak or casing. If the immature spirit cannot bear the spiritual pressure acting upon it in a higher age in which it has found itself existing,it would cave in and its cloak would suffer along with it.The starting point of this suffering are the brain cells.With little or no energy from the scorched and weak spirit to animate them,they become unbalanced and sick as well.

    We can see evidence of these events mushrooming all around us. This scorching hits individuals or nations at the time most ripe and right for it. Recently in Nigeria, a young boy killed his mother in the east, slept with the corpse and then dismembered her organs for sale to ritualists! In Lagos, two brothers who needed money for the naming ceremony of the child of one of them beheaded the seven-year-old son of one of their neighbours, hoping to sell the head to ritualists! We have heard of a new trend in which men in their 50s and 60s sleep with girls aged five or six years! Even more shocking is the story of a man who raped a 68-year-old woman. Depression lies behind armed conflicts. Last year alone, thousands of people were needlessly killed in Nigeria because the brains of some people were not working properly. And, now, we are learning from Nigerian psychiatrists that more than half of the population may have defective brains.

    But we assume people with defective brains are only those who live and sleep on refuse dumps or walk about with no clothes on. A man who steals trillions of naira but is lucky to not be found out,who would not retire from thieving to enjoy his loot but would prefer to go on stealing peanut money until he is caught is not a normal person. He is like that jilted bank worker who, on the day his girlfriend was getting married to another man, sprayed his car with petrol, got into it and struck a matchstick to set himself ablaze.

    Everywhere you turn, you find people with defective brains. They are enveloped in negative energy and radiate it. They are inwardly sick and sullen,bitter and angry and resort to external aids such as drink, sex, violence, slander, murder etc to hold themselves together. They do not know whom they are or for what lofty goals they are permitted existence. Thus, they live but are not alive. Being inwardly empty, all they know about is money and material acquisitions. It does not matter what social level they have attained. They are still sick souls. Let us look at a few more recent occurrences in Nigeria. ONE: In the east, a child of five years was playing outdoor. Some women kidnapped her and sold her for N350,000 in another town. The buyers resold her within 24 hours for N750,000 to another group in another town where the police found and rescued this girl. The captors and buyers did not remember that they were parents.

    We will pitch a tent here on some of the “take always” of 2018, which give away nothing about the individuals they concern. As I look back at the old year, it is depression I see on the protocol almost everywhere. Psychiatric facilities are spilling patients over and doctors are overworked. A testimonial of this is the rehabilitation centre for drug depressed people which Senator Oluremi Tinubu built in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos State, and was inaugurated by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. If we look around and about us carefully,we may find that it is not only people who soliloquise or bite the bark of trees for food who have something upstairs working the reverse way or mode. I still remember vividly the reported story of that man in Lagos who went drinking on the eve of his daughter’s wedding. When he returned home and discovered electricity had failed yet again, he lost a little grip on himself. He woke up his daughter to ask for his torch. When she could not tell him where it was, he drew a matchette and cut her to pieces. His wife fled. His eyes cleared a short while later in the police station. He had been possessed by an earthbound soul who derives pleasure and joy in what he had just done. Last year, this column tried to make a distinction between possession and insanity. Possession is often facilitated by poor or low blood radiations, it was said, and may be easily corrected not necessarily  by putting the patient to sleep with injections, but by recomposing the blood. By injecting their patients to sleep as a way of calming the nerves, doctors merely make the bodies of these patients momentarily unusable by those earthbound souls on the prowl who take over the bodies owned and inhabited by weak souls for their own use and pleasure. When these patients are no longer on these injections, and their bodies are usable again by the invading earth bound souls,a relapse often occurs if that soul is able again to take partial or full possesion, giving the scenario of two souls trying to control one body through one brain, a situation often mistaken for insanity. The blood is the means by which the soul communicates with the body and vice versa. So, anyone who either through spiritual weakness or poor nutrition,makes his or her blood radiation weak and unusable by other entities is to blame for these happenings. So,when you walk on a pedestrian bridge across a super expressway and a thought comes to you, suggesting that you jump below, as some people told me last year they sometimes feel, realise your blood may be weak and someone you cannot see,who has departed this earth but fails to move from here and is, therefore, earthbound, is trying to mess you up.When you are alone in your bedroom or in the bath and you feel like masturbating,someone is whispering to you to do something to yourself which degrades you. It is possible more than 20 of them are watching you and laughing as you make yourself a toy or playground  in their hands..You may be DEPRESSED.

  • Depression, real and it’s ravaging our societies

    SIR, Recently, Nigerians received the tragic story that a 300 level student, Aisha Omolola Abdulganiyu, of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, committed suicide in her Samaru apartment. On that gloomy evening of December 26, 2018, the social media went into frenzy. Many were shocked at how a happy-looking lady – that was just a day earlier wishing season greetings – will go to the length of taking away her own life in the blink of an eye.

    But going through the suicide note she reportedly left, one doesn’t need to go deeper to come to terms with the sad reality: depression is real and it’s ravaging our societies – even if it does that silently. Although usually misunderstood as just a feeling of sadness that comes and goes in response to life events, depression, as a matter of fact, is a killing disease that claims the lives of hundreds of thousands of people yearly, mostly from suicide.

    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is a common mental disorder, affecting more than 300 million people of all ages globally. It is different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to challenges in everyday life. In moderate conditions, depression can cause long-lasting and severe feelings of sadness, hopelessness, fatigue, and a loss of interest in activities. At its worst, it can lead to suicide. The WHO estimated last year, close to 800,000 people die yearly due to suicide.

    A World Bank study found out that on average, 22 per cent of Nigerians suffer chronic depression. Data from other reports show Nigeria as having the 13th highest suicide mortality rate in Africa. Nigeria is also ranked as the country with the world’s 30th highest suicide rate.

    In the last two years alone, there has been an increase in reported incidences of Nigerians taking away their own lives – mostly out of depression. Like in Aisha’s case, some ended their lives by taking poison. Others committed suicide by hanging themselves, while a significant number jumped into the lagoon and drowned.

    Understanding what depression feels like will help us understand why happy-looking Nigerians would want to terminate their stay on earth. This is because, with a high number of unemployed people – especially the youth – one wonders how many people needing medical treatment and counselling are wearing a mask covering depression, anger, and sadness.

    Jennifer Berry in an insightful article for Medical News Today examined how depression feels and its common causes and risks factors. According to her, depression not only disrupts careers, relationships and daily tasks such as self-care and housework; its symptoms can last for months or years and can make it difficult or impossible for victims to carry on with daily life. Persons suffering from it may not enjoy things they once loved and feel like nothing can make them happy.

    Experts have identified several factors that cause depression. Major life changes and stressful events including divorce, the death of a loved one, job loss, or financial problems may trigger it. Alcohol and drug use, certain illnesses, genetics, sexual abuse, and some medication like steroids and cancer drugs are also risk factors for depression.

    As both the major religions in the country – Islam and Christianity – and most cultures are against the idea of one taking away his own life, religious and community leaders have a role to play in putting an end to the rising incidences of suicide. The government and stakeholders in the health sector should provide necessary services and counselling for those affected with mental illnesses, while also raising awareness on its causes, treatment, and prevention. Poverty-alleviating programs and other social initiatives to engage the poor and vulnerable of the society should be provided, because Nigerians deserve to have a chance to live.

    Stigmatizing and pushing away of loved ones suffering from mental diseases only intensify their isolation and risks of suicide, as studies have shown. Nobody wants to be in a state where he/she feels worthless and hopeless. It’s not laziness or weakness that makes them feel as such, but rather, preventable mental illnesses we could help them overcome. We’ve to understand this. We should therefore stop mocking and laughing at depressed people, whom we ignorantly misjudge as just being “lazy and weak”.

  • Talk show to tackle widowhood, depression in women holds Saturday

    She-EO (Executive Officer), a talk show style event for women is set to tackle issues around widowhood, career success, depression, and money anxiety disorders among women.

    To achieve this, the Founder of She-EO, Temitope Fajingbesi-Balogun said the evolving issues will be addressed at the fourth edition of She-EO tomorrow, Saturday, January 12 at the Nigerian Law School, Victoria Island, Lagos state, from 9 to 5pm.

    According to her, She-EO is an interactive and socially engaging female-only platform which provides a veritable avenue for women to discuss and share ideas on gender-sensitive issues and proffer solutions to help participants deal with such problems.

    The seminar, she said aims to be a talking point for women to share their real life experiences with other women who might be going through similar rough patches, with a view to inspiring them to excellence in spite of challenges.

    “She-EO is a talk show style event for only 100 women in a room, discussing issues that matters to African women which they do not like to discuss in the open but which must be discussed because they matter.

    “We will discuss relationships, love, finances, investments, business, fashion and health among other things. We will also address issues of personal growth and community engagement, with specific emphasis on financial, mental and societal barriers that inhibit the growth and progress of the African woman in a male-dominated society.”

    She urged women to view themselves in the right perspectives.

    “Our biggest problem as women is perspective. Women are created to be emotional. How you feel of yourself as a woman drives a man and this is what She EO is here to solve. As a woman, you must perceive yourself as worthy of whatever you have achieved and not be moved by your challenge because your success comes from how you perceive yourself,” she said.

    According to her, the discussions at the seminar will focus on getting Nigerian women equipped with tools to survive mental traumas and stress, spotlight on the male perspectives on issues that affect women in the African society. Fajingbesi-Balogun noted that the ultimate mission of the initiative is to motivate women in Nigeria to become change agents in their families, organisations and communities, and to make them passionate about leaving a better world for future generations.

    “The event is expected to host an assembly of key personalities, including women professionals and Chief Executive Officers of notable companies, corporate executives, human resource professionals, media personalities, mental health experts, civil society organisations and diplomats,” she said.

    She noted that SheEO started in 2017 and it holds every second Saturday of the year to enable women begin the year with set goals.

    “What will be unique about this year’s edition is that we will asides the women who will speak, also have four men in the room who will talk to the women, we will ask questions and get the male perspective about women.

    “Women who need business partners, career coach and mentors will have their needs met. This talk show will make the year different for all participants and enable them accomplish their New Year resolutions, knowing that women are disadvantaged globally. ”

    She said She EO will help develop Nigeria because women have the potential to develop the nation. “Women own most of the small businesses in the country today and this is why we are set out to develop women because they have a link to economic growth,” she said.

  • Depression… bouncing to life from the abyss

    BACK home in Lagos from a 2002 Accra, Ghana, conference on natural medicine, I headed straight for my village, Odole-Isonyin, Ogun State, in search of a Chinese cash herb tree said to grow luxuriantly in southwestern Nigeria and named by the pharmacopea of western Nigeria as Igi Alukoko (r-d-d-d.). Oil from the seed was selling like hot cake in the United States, where it was helping many patients of depression, and the Chinese, trust them, were exporting more and more of this oil to the U.S. It had no capacity to make oil from the seeds. All I wanted to do was pick some of the leaves of this tree, dry and then pulversise them to powder, and use this in kitchen experiments to confirm or debunk the claims made at the conference that the oil and leaf extracts calmed trait nerves and make insomniac and depressed people sleep better than many pharmaceutical drugs do. I was roundly disappointed wherever I went. It so happened that, in the decade before then, many ”bush” areas in Ijebuland where tree grew had given way to modern houses in the quest to turn bushes into towns.

    I remembered Igi Alukoko again last week when a gentleman who was recovering from depression encouraged me to address this subject for the benefit of readers of this column who may have cases of depression on their hands. I could not resist the thought for depression because I have friends and acquaintances among readers of this column who are themselves close to states of clinical depression on account of their children who are depressed. I mentioned one such case in passing recently, in the column on Codeine and Tramadol.

    Another that I could not mention because of space constraints was that of a gentleman who has three of four children going in and out of hospital from time to time on account of drugs use related to depression.

    Many people are in one stage of depression or the other without knowing that they are. When friends indulge in group drinking, feeling happy when they slough alcohol, they may be on the way to full blown depression.

    I have a carpenter friend who has disappeared from circulation on account of depression. Any time I visited him at his workshop and I found him spraying furniture with polish without a nose guard and I told him he was killing himself installmentally, he replied that his body was used to the fumes. Soon after, he bagan to behave abnormally. He would wear a native dress and knot a tie on it and wear tennis canvas shoes.

    Later, he began to speak of Jesus visiting him in his dream and telling him that a Heavenly Host had anointed him the successor to then President Olusegun Obasanjo. One day, he won N500, 000 on Lagos Lottery. All advice on how he could wisely invest the money fell on deaf ears. He bought drinks freely for everyone, and went after women without caution.

    He bought four of the latest big screen cell phones, one for a different sim card. Everywhere he went, phones rang about him. His customers could be calling. So could be his women or fair weather people who wanted to enjoy his largesse. In the end, he crashed financially and emotionally. Till this day, no one at Ilupeju Model Market, on Town Planning Way, Ilupeju, Lagos, where he was the lead carpenter, can say where he is, or what has befallen him.

    Unfortunately for depressed people in Nigeria, many of them are mistaken for mad or insane people, many of whose condition I described in an earlier column as likely cases of possession. In possession, a departed but earth-bound soul is trying to take over the brain, partially or wholly, of a person still in the flesh, with a view to using the body, because the blood radiations of the affected person have become so weak or dull to permit this.

     

    Depression

     

    A simple picture I see before me is that every one of us is a bundle of energy. This ”energy” is a spark which is meant to burst into flame, flowering and fruiting in this great and wonderful Creation. It is the highest gradation of Spirit from the Spirit world or Paradise.

    As editor of the CROSS CORPER, the magazine of youth corps members in Cross River State in 1977/1978, I was shocked in the course of my research of a subject for publication to learn that the great scientist Dalton, who propounded the atomic theory of his days, believed that spirit is the energy which binds all sub-atomic particles together in the nucleus of the atom. It is this energy that is released for bombs, electricity etc. when the atom is broken into its primeval component. As on earth, where the finest gradation of matter forms the human body, including its brains and lesser gradations of matter forms waters, trees, rocks, sand etc, the highest gradation of spirit in the spiritual world, paradise, forms the human spirit while lesser gradations form the environment of Paradise.The world of matter is lifeless.

    Certain gradations of spirit or spirit mode hold material components together and animate them, that gives them seeming life. Doesn’t our physical bodies not similarly come to life with the fist kicks of pregnancy the foetus mid-way though pregnancy when the soul enters into or incarnates in this growing body and does it not fall apart in so-called earthly death when the soul departs? We have heard of black holes, dead stars. They are nothing but stars from which light, that is the binding spirit energy, has departed and which, gravitationally has consequently collapsed imploded upon itself.

    There is nowhere this energy is not present … in the suns and in the stars, in the raging fire in the bowels of the earth, and in the core of man, spirit.

    The bundle of energy within everyone of us, spirit, that is man himself, is expected to maintain a homeostatic balance against all other forces of energy in its environment. If it cannot maintain equilibrium, it would cave in and collapse, and the physical body it is meant to animate for its use on earth would become derelict and sick. That why knowing physicians that is, physicians knowing in these matters, do not treat only the body which has been made sick by the sick animating core, Spirit, within, and fail to treat the ”mind” along with it. I used the term ”mind” advisedly here, because that is the level at which many people recognise and appreciate the spirit, especially when the talk about mind – over matter diseases. Some even call diseases of spiritual origin ”emotional” diseases.

     

    Signs of depression

     

    Many parents of depressed children miss the first signs or early warning signals. These may include withdrawal or hibernation, insomnia, irritability, ingratitude, aloofness, compulsive eating or appetite loss, lethargy or lack of interest in anything, fatigue,  mood swings, guilt feelings, feelings of worthlessness, helplessness or hopelessness, crying without apparent cause, insomnia or oversleeping, body aches, digestive, and other problems, attention deficit problems, inability to make sound decisions or any decision, decreased libido and lack of interest in the opposite gender, growing anxiety, fear which may degenerate into schizophrenia, evasion of social situations, suicidal thoughts, negative thoughts, excessive drinking, euphoric or free spending.

    These conditions may degenerate into worse forms of depression which may witness soliloquising, violence, memory impairment, hallucination e.t.c. At the stage of hallucination, a depressed person may do what he or she would ordinarily not do in a normal situation. In this stage, the person may come under ethereal influences. I once witnessed a young woman try to strip herself nude and fight her mother who tried to stop her. I have heard of lonesome, absent-minded people who made cemeteries their homes. We know of people who prefer uncompleted or abandoned buildings to the splendor and comfort of air-conditioned luxury homes. They eat anything they see. They do not mind if they wear the same clothes for weeks or if they do not bathe for months. I heard the story of a university undergraduate who was talked into abortion by her boyfriend and jilted after. For about two years, she was a source of depression to her parents and siblings at home. They hid all dangerous objects from her, and locked her in-door whenever they went to work. She may not eat for one or two weeks, or eat too little for comfort. She menstruated on her body and clothes in bed and on the sitting-room couch. She spoke to no-one. Then, one day, she overheard a conversation among her siblings.

    A younger sibling was getting married. She spoke, expressing surprise. She learned how much time had elapsed, beg and began to think of and see herself as a woman who should make herself desirable for a man to talk to.

    I advised that the household subtly keep up the momentum. No harsh words. No references to the past, except she longed for illumination. Positive, up-building words are healing words. Her healing had begun. Today, she works and hopes to go back to school and …. to get married someday. She is lucky. Her family is loving and supportive. In such families, such children are cast out or even eliminated. I stood with this family and share in their joy.

     

    Some causes of depression

    There are too many possible causes that they cannot all be mentioned here. But remember that we are all bundles of energy raring to grow from a spark into a flame. As a bundle of energy, you are in danger everyday of losing some energy to the environment when you should be gaining from it. We lose energy through leaks at home, in offices, during bus rides, everywhere. In www.olufemikusa.com I posted a much, much older column of Stanley Redfield’s four human dramas which steal energy from us, as published in his great book, CELESTINE PROPHESY.

    Energy theft, which may plunge one into depression, usually begins with one’s parents. Depression sets in when the energy within cannot withstand the energy force of the energy from outside acting upon it, and it caves in and collapses. I will mention only two of those four traits or drama of a parent which may plunge a child into depression. Husbands may plunge their wives into depression with their life dramas. Wives may do so to their husbands, as well.

    Anyone who is an intimidator seeks steal energy from another. They bellow, utter negative words and impact negative thoughts, always seeking to cow the other party into submission. There are interrogators also. These see nothing good in whatever you do, are fault finders and see to make you go only their own way. As an extension of the habit, these parents try to push their own children through their own world. It does not occur to them that their children are mere guests in their lives who must go their own ways at the appointed time, and whose path, parents, especially mothers, are meant to be faithful guardians of. Some of these parents present perfectionist models. They fail to recognise that, in a family of five children for example, all children will be different, and that one model of upbringing will not bring out the best in all. By removing a child from his or her natural tracts and pressing them into ours, and then casting them out of our lives when they trip and fall and become depressed, we stand before God like Lucifer.

    Many children are in Psychiatric hospitals today who should not have been there. They may have been so verbally abused, compared with ”success” children so often that their feeling of self-worth is destroyed by the same parents who think they love them. Feeling cast out, they withdraw to themselves, become fearful, apathetic, no longer believing in themselves, finds respite in drugs to high-up and square up, finds solace in similar souls maltreated likewise by parents and society, and may become violent towards the ”irritants” in their lives. From my experiences, their frame of mind is easy to deconstruct with love therapies.

    As mentioned earlier, there are many possible causes of depression. In their PRESCIPTIONS FOR NATURAL CURES, Dr. James F. Balch and Mark Stengler N. D., advise us: “(Root causes: Tension and Stress, unresolved emotional issues, chronic illness or pain, neuro – transmitter imbalance, hormonal imbalance especially after child birth or as a result of oral contraceptives and other synthetic hormone medications commonly occurs with PMS and menopause.

    PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: most commonly hypoglycemia, anaemia, sleep apnea, low adrenal function and thyroid gland malfunction, alcoholic and recreational drug use, poor diet, food allergies, nutritional deficiencies (particularly of B12, Folic acid, B6, B1 and Tryptophan), lack of sunlight, medications, including corticosteroids, anti-histamine, blood pressure medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, narcotics and some pharmaceutical anti-depressants, heavy metal toxicity, candidiasis, sleep disturbances)”.

     

    Some helpful therapies

     

    Dr. Balch and Dr Stengler have covered wide terrain. Unfortunately, in our environment, many psychiatrists think largely of narcotic drugs. But, I must state that they are rendering an indispensable service with the boxing up of the patient in a controlled environment where he or she can be stabilised. I believe it will be helping their work if they include nutrition in their therapy after the patient has stabilised, to prevent a relapse, which often occurs because the roots or underlying causes may not have been addressed.

    The naturopath begins his own therapy by checking on the patient’s tongues. If it is overly grayish, this may suggest systemic candidiasis. I  have seen ”hay wire” people normalise on tissue salts for candidiasis, Zinc, Amazon A-F and detoxifying herbs such as Chlorella, Spirulina and Cilantro all of which help the body to excrete disturbing heavy metals.

    L- Tyrosine aid vitamin B complete are regulars in the prescriptions of Dr. Pri-scilla Slagle, according to THE DOCTORS BOOKS OF HOME REMEDIES. Dr. Balch and Dr. Slengler prescribe them, too. The Doctors Book of Home Remedies say of Dr. Slagle: Nutrition – more than anything else – control your state of mind, claims Priscilla Slagle M.D., an associate clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA School of Medicine. The most beneficial nutrients for battling depression.

    Above all, she says its B vitamins and certain Amino acids. Here is her formula: ”If you are feeling down, try 1,000 to 3,000mg of the amino acid L-tyrosine fist thing in the morning (on an empty stomach) followed by a B-Complex vitamin Supplement 30 minutes later, with breakfast, suggest Dr. Slage.”

    ” L-tyrosine converts in the brain to Nor epinephrine, a chemical that promotes positive mood and gives us motivation and drive”, she says.

    Dr. Balch and Dr. Stengler suggest that B vitamins at 50mg dosage be taken two times a day because they are important in the manufacture of neurotransmitter. These are chemical substances which help the brain to stay ”cool” and function properly. They suggest, also the amino acid DL-Phenylalanine which the brain all uses to make neurotransmitter. But they contra-indicate in conditions of insomnia, high blood pressure and anxiety. Their star prescription would appear to be S- adenosylmethionine (SAME) which they say ”increases the concentration of brain neurotransmitters which are responsible for your mood”.

    They do not forget 5-hydroxyltriptophan (5-HT P), from which the brain makes the neurotransmitter serotonin. The oil of the seed of Igi Alukoko provides the U.S market with 5- HTP. Serotonin which keeps us awake and at the alert during the day, and to melatonin which helps us to sleep soundly at night. These doctors also suggest inclusion of complex carbohydrates in the diet, saying they are rich sources of serotonin. Unfortunately, most, if not all patients of depression, live on simple carbohydrates or even junk foods.

    I have witnessed some depressed people heal whatever disturbances in the brain caused their condition when they began to eat for their brains, literally speaking Ginkgo biloba increases blood supply to the brain and improves micro circulation inside it. Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA), an antioxidant, protects the brain against free radicals which may seek to damage it or hamper its works. Lecithin increases the concentration of choline and Inositol in the neurons of the brain, thereby improving brain energy. Omega-3 oils improve memory and improve attention span.

  • How I survived my depression, says actress

    With the message ongoing that people should seek help if in depression, Nollywood actress Maureen Okpoko whose marriage recently packed-up has revealed in a chat with The Nation revealed that the break-up came sudden and nearly ruined her career.

    “I am just grateful to my family for standing by me; they helped me pulled through the whole journey,” she said.

    “It was not an easy task, but they kept encouraging and never let me alone, till I was able to pick-up the pieces of my life back.

    “It could have been terrible; who knows could have been a lunatic roaming the streets. Prayers and counselling also helped me a whole lot. I remain eternally grateful to God”.

    On reconciliation with her ex-hubby, she closed a possibility.

    “No too much water has passed under d bridge.”

    Nominated for Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 2016, Okpoko is a native of Anambra State and of Nigerian and Jamaican descent.

  • Depression… bouncing to life from the abyss

    Back home in Lagos from a 2002 Accra, Ghana, conference on natural medicine, I headed straight for my village, Odole-Isonyin, Ogun State, in search of a Chinese cash herb tree said to grow luxuriantly in southwestern Nigeria and named by the pharmacopea of western Nigeria as Igi Alukoko (r-d-d-d.). Oil from the seed was selling like hot cake in the United States, where it was helping many patients of depression, and the Chinese, trust them, were exporting more and more of this oil to the U.S. It had no capacity to make oil from the seeds. All I wanted to do was pick some of the leaves of this tree, dry and then pulversise them to powder, and use this in kitchen experiments to confirm or debunk the claims made at the conference that the oil and leaf extracts calmed trait nerves and make insomniac and depressed people sleep better than many pharmaceutical drugs do. I was roundly disappointed wherever I went. It so happened that, in the decade before then, many ”bush” areas in Ijebuland where tree grew had given way to modern houses in the quest to turn bushes into towns.

    I remembered Igi Alukoko again last week when a gentleman who was recovering from depression encouraged me to address this subject for the benefit of readers of this column who may have cases of depression on their hands. I could not resist the thought for depression because I have friends and acquaintances among readers of this column who are themselves close to states of clinical depression on account of their children who are depressed. I mentioned one such case in passing recently, in the column on Codeine and Tramadol.

    Another that I could not mention because of space constraints was that of a gentleman who has three of four children going in and out of hospital from time to time on account of drugs use related to depression.

    Many people are in one stage of depression or the other without knowing that they are. When friends indulge in group drinking, feeling happy when they slough alcohol, they may be on the way to full blown depression.

    I have a carpenter friend who has disappeared from circulation on account of depression. Any time I visited him at his workshop and I found him spraying furniture with polish without a nose guard and I told him he was killing himself installmentally, he replied that his body was used to the fumes. Soon after, he bagan to behave abnormally. He would wear a native dress and knot a tie on it and wear tennis canvas shoes.

    Later, he began to speak of Jesus visiting him in his dream and telling him that a Heavenly Host had anointed him the successor to then President Olusegun Obasanjo. One day, he won N500, 000 on Lagos Lottery. All advice on how he could wisely invest the money fell on deaf ears. He bought drinks freely for everyone, and went after women without caution.

    He bought four of the latest big screen cell phones, one for a different sim card. Everywhere he went, phones rang about him. His customers could be calling. So could be his women or fair weather people who wanted to enjoy his largesse. In the end, he crashed financially and emotionally. Till this day, no one at Ilupeju Model Market, on Town Planning Way, Ilupeju, Lagos, where he was the lead carpenter, can say where he is, or what has befallen him.

    Unfortunately for depressed people in Nigeria, many of them are mistaken for mad or insane people, many of whose condition I described in an earlier column as likely cases of possession. In possession, a departed but earth-bound soul is trying to take over the brain, partially or wholly, of a person still in the flesh, with a view to using the body, because the blood radiations of the affected person have become so weak or dull to permit this.

     

    Depression

     

    A simple picture I see before me is that every one of us is a bundle of energy. This ”energy” is a spark which is meant to burst into flame, flowering and fruiting in this great and wonderful Creation. It is the highest gradation of Spirit from the Spirit world or Paradise.

    As editor of the CROSS CORPER, the magazine of youth corps members in Cross River State in 1977/1978, I was shocked in the course of my research of a subject for publication to learn that the great scientist Dalton, who propounded the atomic theory of his days, believed that spirit is the energy which binds all sub-atomic particles together in the nucleus of the atom. It is this energy that is released for bombs, electricity etc. when the atom is broken into its primeval component. As on earth, where the finest gradation of matter forms the human body, including its brains and lesser gradations of matter forms waters, trees, rocks, sand etc, the highest gradation of spirit in the spiritual world, paradise, forms the human spirit while lesser gradations form the environment of Paradise.The world of matter is lifeless.

    Certain gradations of spirit or spirit mode hold material components together and animate them, that gives them seeming life. Doesn’t our physical bodies not similarly come to life with the fist kicks of pregnancy the foetus mid-way though pregnancy when the soul enters into or incarnates in this growing body and does it not fall apart in so-called earthly death when the soul departs? We have heard of black holes, dead stars. They are nothing but stars from which light, that is the binding spirit energy, has departed and which, gravitationally has consequently collapsed imploded upon itself.

    There is nowhere this energy is not present … in the suns and in the stars, in the raging fire in the bowels of the earth, and in the core of man, spirit.

    The bundle of energy within everyone of us, spirit, that is man himself, is expected to maintain a homeostatic balance against all other forces of energy in its environment. If it cannot maintain equilibrium, it would cave in and collapse, and the physical body it is meant to animate for its use on earth would become derelict and sick. That why knowing physicians that is, physicians knowing in these matters, do not treat only the body which has been made sick by the sick animating core, Spirit, within, and fail to treat the ”mind” along with it. I used the term ”mind” advisedly here, because that is the level at which many people recognise and appreciate the spirit, especially when the talk about mind – over matter diseases. Some even call diseases of spiritual origin ”emotional” diseases.

     

    Signs of depression

     

    Many parents of depressed children miss the first signs or early warning signals. These may include withdrawal or hibernation, insomnia, irritability, ingratitude, aloofness, compulsive eating or appetite loss, lethargy or lack of interest in anything, fatigue,  mood swings, guilt feelings, feelings of worthlessness, helplessness or hopelessness, crying without apparent cause, insomnia or oversleeping, body aches, digestive, and other problems, attention deficit problems, inability to make sound decisions or any decision, decreased libido and lack of interest in the opposite gender, growing anxiety, fear which may degenerate into schizophrenia, evasion of social situations, suicidal thoughts, negative thoughts, excessive drinking, euphoric or free spending.

    These conditions may degenerate into worse forms of depression which may witness soliloquising, violence, memory impairment, hallucination e.t.c. At the stage of hallucination, a depressed person may do what he or she would ordinarily not do in a normal situation. In this stage, the person may come under ethereal influences. I once witnessed a young woman try to strip herself nude and fight her mother who tried to stop her. I have heard of lonesome, absent-minded people who made cemeteries their homes. We know of people who prefer uncompleted or abandoned buildings to the splendor and comfort of air-conditioned luxury homes. They eat anything they see. They do not mind if they wear the same clothes for weeks or if they do not bathe for months. I heard the story of a university undergraduate who was talked into abortion by her boyfriend and jilted after. For about two years, she was a source of depression to her parents and siblings at home. They hid all dangerous objects from her, and locked her in-door whenever they went to work. She may not eat for one or two weeks, or eat too little for comfort. She menstruated on her body and clothes in bed and on the sitting-room couch. She spoke to no-one. Then, one day, she overheard a conversation among her siblings.

    A younger sibling was getting married. She spoke, expressing surprise. She learned how much time had elapsed, beg and began to think of and see herself as a woman who should make herself desirable for a man to talk to.

    I advised that the household subtly keep up the momentum. No harsh words. No references to the past, except she longed for illumination. Positive, up-building words are healing words. Her healing had begun. Today, she works and hopes to go back to school and …. to get married someday. She is lucky. Her family is loving and supportive. In such families, such children are cast out or even eliminated. I stood with this family and share in their joy.

     

    Some causes of depression

    There are too many possible causes that they cannot all be mentioned here. But remember that we are all bundles of energy raring to grow from a spark into a flame. As a bundle of energy, you are in danger everyday of losing some energy to the environment when you should be gaining from it. We lose energy through leaks at home, in offices, during bus rides, everywhere. In www.olufemikusa.com I posted a much, much older column of Stanley Redfield’s four human dramas which steal energy from us, as published in his great book, CELESTINE PROPHESY.

    Energy theft, which may plunge one into depression, usually begins with one’s parents. Depression sets in when the energy within cannot withstand the energy force of the energy from outside acting upon it, and it caves in and collapses. I will mention only two of those four traits or drama of a parent which may plunge a child into depression. Husbands may plunge their wives into depression with their life dramas. Wives may do so to their husbands, as well.

    Anyone who is an intimidator seeks steal energy from another. They bellow, utter negative words and impact negative thoughts, always seeking to cow the other party into submission. There are interrogators also. These see nothing good in whatever you do, are fault finders and see to make you go only their own way. As an extension of the habit, these parents try to push their own children through their own world. It does not occur to them that their children are mere guests in their lives who must go their own ways at the appointed time, and whose path, parents, especially mothers, are meant to be faithful guardians of. Some of these parents present perfectionist models. They fail to recognise that, in a family of five children for example, all children will be different, and that one model of upbringing will not bring out the best in all. By removing a child from his or her natural tracts and pressing them into ours, and then casting them out of our lives when they trip and fall and become depressed, we stand before God like Lucifer.

    Many children are in Psychiatric hospitals today who should not have been there. They may have been so verbally abused, compared with ”success” children so often that their feeling of self-worth is destroyed by the same parents who think they love them. Feeling cast out, they withdraw to themselves, become fearful, apathetic, no longer believing in themselves, finds respite in drugs to high-up and square up, finds solace in similar souls maltreated likewise by parents and society, and may become violent towards the ”irritants” in their lives. From my experiences, their frame of mind is easy to deconstruct with love therapies.

    As mentioned earlier, there are many possible causes of depression. In their PRESCIPTIONS FOR NATURAL CURES, Dr. James F. Balch and Mark Stengler N. D., advise us: “(Root causes: Tension and Stress, unresolved emotional issues, chronic illness or pain, neuro – transmitter imbalance, hormonal imbalance especially after child birth or as a result of oral contraceptives and other synthetic hormone medications commonly occurs with PMS and menopause.

    PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: most commonly hypoglycemia, anaemia, sleep apnea, low adrenal function and thyroid gland malfunction, alcoholic and recreational drug use, poor diet, food allergies, nutritional deficiencies (particularly of B12, Folic acid, B6, B1 and Tryptophan), lack of sunlight, medications, including corticosteroids, anti-histamine, blood pressure medications, anti-inflammatory drugs, narcotics and some pharmaceutical anti-depressants, heavy metal toxicity, candidiasis, sleep disturbances)”.

     

    Some helpful therapies

     

    Dr. Balch and Dr Stengler have covered wide terrain. Unfortunately, in our environment, many psychiatrists think largely of narcotic drugs. But, I must state that they are rendering an indispensable service with the boxing up of the patient in a controlled environment where he or she can be stabilised. I believe it will be helping their work if they include nutrition in their therapy after the patient has stabilised, to prevent a relapse, which often occurs because the roots or underlying causes may not have been addressed.

    The naturopath begins his own therapy by checking on the patient’s tongues. If it is overly grayish, this may suggest systemic candidiasis. I  have seen ”hay wire” people normalise on tissue salts for candidiasis, Zinc, Amazon A-F and detoxifying herbs such as Chlorella, Spirulina and Cilantro all of which help the body to excrete disturbing heavy metals.

    L- Tyrosine aid vitamin B complete are regulars in the prescriptions of Dr. Pri-scilla Slagle, according to THE DOCTORS BOOKS OF HOME REMEDIES. Dr. Balch and Dr. Slengler prescribe them, too. The Doctors Book of Home Remedies say of Dr. Slagle: Nutrition – more than anything else – control your state of mind, claims Priscilla Slagle M.D., an associate clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA School of Medicine. The most beneficial nutrients for battling depression.

    Above all, she says its B vitamins and certain Amino acids. Here is her formula: ”If you are feeling down, try 1,000 to 3,000mg of the amino acid L-tyrosine fist thing in the morning (on an empty stomach) followed by a B-Complex vitamin Supplement 30 minutes later, with breakfast, suggest Dr. Slage.”

    ” L-tyrosine converts in the brain to Nor epinephrine, a chemical that promotes positive mood and gives us motivation and drive”, she says.

    Dr. Balch and Dr. Stengler suggest that B vitamins at 50mg dosage be taken two times a day because they are important in the manufacture of neurotransmitter. These are chemical substances which help the brain to stay ”cool” and function properly. They suggest, also the amino acid DL-Phenylalanine which the brain all uses to make neurotransmitter. But they contra-indicate in conditions of insomnia, high blood pressure and anxiety. Their star prescription would appear to be S- adenosylmethionine (SAME) which they say ”increases the concentration of brain neurotransmitters which are responsible for your mood”.

    They do not forget 5-hydroxyltriptophan (5-HT P), from which the brain makes the neurotransmitter serotonin. The oil of the seed of Igi Alukoko provides the U.S market with 5- HTP. Serotonin which keeps us awake and at the alert during the day, and to melatonin which helps us to sleep soundly at night. These doctors also suggest inclusion of complex carbohydrates in the diet, saying they are rich sources of serotonin. Unfortunately, most, if not all patients of depression, live on simple carbohydrates or even junk foods.

    I have witnessed some depressed people heal whatever disturbances in the brain caused their condition when they began to eat for their brains, literally speaking Ginkgo biloba increases blood supply to the brain and improves micro circulation inside it. Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA), an antioxidant, protects the brain against free radicals which may seek to damage it or hamper its works. Lecithin increases the concentration of choline and Inositol in the neurons of the brain, thereby improving brain energy. Omega-3 oils improve memory and improve attention span.

  • High consumption of vegetables, olive oil treats depression- Research

    High consumption of vegetables and olive oil and moderate consumption of protein, will not only help treat depression, but also can save consumers and patients money as a more cost-effective treatment, according to latest Australian research.

    “Our new analysis looked at comparative costs in things like counselling, healthcare visits (or general practitioner (visits), medicine, food, travel, and lost productivity to evaluate whether a dietary intervention like this provides value for money,” Dr. Mary Lou Chatterton, a research fellow from Deakin University, said on Tuesday.

    “The lower cost was partially due to fewer health professional visits, such as to doctors, dentists, and psychologists.

    “The participants on the dietary intervention also reported less time lost from unpaid activities such as housework and childcare.”

    Read Also:Depression and rising cases of suicide in Nigeria

    The university’s latest findings build on what it said is ground-breaking evidence that it published in 2017 to show how diet could be used to treat depression.

    The move involved patients switching to a Mediterranean diet-like regime of increasing the consumption of vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, legumes, fish, lean red meats, olive oil and nuts, while reducing their consumption of unhealthy “extras” foods, such as sweets, refined cereals, fried food, fast-food, processed meats and sugary drinks.

    The latest economic analysis on the simple dietary improvements, published in the journal BMC Public Health, factored in dietitians’ wage costs as well as food, with costs for consumers of the healthier diet estimated at 26 Australian dollars (19.70 U.S. dollars) per week lower than their normal consumption before they started the trial, according to the researchers.

    “We already know that dietary counselling is cost-effective when it comes to the management of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes,” Chatterton said.

    “But these results indicate that providing support for people with depression to improve their diet may be a cost-effective strategy to reduce mental health symptoms too.”

    “There is a strong relationship between depression and the development of other chronic health conditions like these.

    “So a dietary improvement strategy could have multiple benefits that translate to wider health and well-being,” he added.

  • Recession exit and the numbing throes of depression

    Early in the week, the news that Nigeria has finally exited the economic recession it blindly walked into in 2016 provided a veritable platform for some high-wired gloating within the corridors of power. And nothing, I dare say, is wrong with a little presidential revelry, considering the barrage of hard knocks that the present leadership suffered due to its benumbing stonewalling on nearly all issues affecting our national health. Until that cheery news, the government appeared to have become eternally stuck in its endlessly pathetic recourse to pointing an accusing finger at the immediate past government of President Goodluck Jonathan while ignoring the remaining four fingers that question its own competence in steering the ship of state through the sea of economic challenges.

    Of course, its condition was compounded by the travail of an absentee President Muhammadu Buhari who had spent more time tending an undisclosed personal ailment than on the many problems threatening to pull the nation down. And so, the news that Nigeria has pulled through recession was a perfect-fit excuse to expand the flighty tales about the Buhari magic wand (apologies to Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information) even as he works from home. No wonder his senior media minder, Femi Adesina, described it as clear evidence that the government was working for the general wellbeing of the populace after successfully battling a recession caused by the “mistakes of the past.” Eh, don’t we all know those this particular stone is meant for?

    For a recession that lasted five nail-biting quarters before this glimmer of hope after two quarters of steady growth, it should be clear to the fawning supporters of this administration that tackling the post-recession realities can never be a walk in the park. This particular recession has wrought unimaginable havoc in many homes; beyond the statistics and figures that we discuss in the city lie many dented psyches, including fathers who lost self-esteem because of poverty and daughters who took to the streets for mere survival. Millions other have completely lost hope in any redemptive moment.

    Getting out of recession is one thing and making it to truly have a positive impact on people’s lives is another. As far as those on the streets are concerned, the figures reeled out by the National Bureau of Statistics and the somewhat upbeat analysis by the President’s National Economic Adviser, Dr. Adeyemi Dipeolu, make no sense if the impact is not felt in their quotidian struggles with life’s challenging twist and turns. No one captures this feeling more than the President himself who, while acknowledging his happiness that Nigeria has recorded a steady growth, explained that it would be more sensible when the figures begin to impact positively in people’s lives. Unfortunately, some of the lives the President is talking about here are already gasping for breath in the intensive care unit of economic deprivation after the intense pummeling by a recession that lasted for over a year!

    While not disputing the figures and sectoral analysis indicating that increased oil production, mining and quarrying, agriculture, manufacturing and construction play major role in pulling Nigeria out of the woods, questions hang over what this means to the average man who forever forage for fate in a country where corruption walks on four legs. If anything, the despair these Nigerians have gone through in the last few months would not be wiped off by some magical statistics that put a semblance of real movement to the nation’s financial fortunes. The answer does not lie in the figures but rather in a determined commitment to sustain the growth. That is why experts have warned that the government cannot afford to fritter away the little gains that may have been recorded in the two quarters of positive change. So, how would the government go about touching lives where it matters so that this would not go down as one of those phantasmagorical achievements on paper?

    If the tempo must be sustained, then the government would have to firm up whatever it was doing right in the maintenance of peace in the Niger Delta region. Without the stability in that region following the deft moves by the government to placate the agitated minds of a resurgent militancy with renewed armed attacks on pipelines installations, I doubt if we would be talking of this remarkable improvement. There is no doubt that a lot has also been achieved in the other sectors like agriculture, mining, infrastructural development and the service sector with the Federal Inland Revenue Services raking in over N2.1tn and the Nigeria Customs Service recording over N400bn in just a quarter.

    However, it is disturbing that all the impressive projections have not reflected on Nigeria’s unemployment figure which, according to Dipeolu, “remains relatively high”, warning that the government is cautiously optimistic of an improvement in the employment market  “as employers increasingly respond more positively to the significantly improving business environment and favourable economic outlook” with, I hasten to note, food inflation on the rise and the hope that the investments in road and rail infrastructure would contribute to the ‘easing of food prices.”

    You know what? Something tells me that we should not become too excited about this news aside its political correctness. I equally want to believe that Dipeolu’s prognosis must have informed Buhari’s somewhat measured reaction to the NBS’ report. A careful reading of that report clearly justifies the fears that have been expressed in some quarters that it is not yet Uhuru for the Nigerian economy. Dipeolu said that much when he announced that though “the end of recession is welcome but economic growth remains fragile and vulnerable to exogenous shocks or policy slippages.” We should take more than a cursory look at that statement.

    Laid bare of it technicalities, what Dipeolu was trying to pass across is that this is not the time to bark in the marketplace or thump the chest over the feat of exiting recession. He may not have mentioned the numbers but we do know that millions of people have become disenchanted, depressed and disorientated with an economic policy that has rendered them useless to themselves, their families and communities. Put succinctly, does exiting recession automatically mean that millions of its depressed victims are fully back on their toes? Not really. In fact, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, was right when he accused members of the ruling party of playing politics with a matter that calls for all hands to be on deck, so that the little gains that have been achieved so far would not slip off our fingers.

    Makarfi equally posed questions which should agitate the minds of every well-meaning Nigerians with a capacity to shed the shameful toga of politicking in national discourse. Advising the government to stop regaling itself in hollow triumphalism, Makarfi would rather want these officials to ponder over these questions: Beyond the statistics, has the economic situation truly improved? Did the government’s initial economic policies strangle foreign investments and activated the capital flight button? Do the figures released indicate that Nigeria could be out of its economic problem when it is not truly out of the problem? And does it mean that the ordinary Nigerian can now feed well, is sure of his security, can get jobs easily with the assurances that infrastructures are in good condition and he can meet the daily needs of his family members including paying tuition fees and assessing affordable medical facilities? Is that why they are partying in Aso Rock even as their principal has refused to join them on the dance floor? In short, how significant is this economic recovery to the yearnings of the millions of depressed citizenry who are the real victims of the recession? What hope do they have and would the figures impact their lives?

    Well, it may be convenient for some government officials to tag these nagging questions as part of the hate speech fabricated from the fountain of lies by the opposition to paint Buhari black and incompetent. But while at it, can they also pay some attention to the several levels of ‘cautious optimism” and warning against “policy slippages” as noted by Dipeolu so that the millions of alienated citizens on the depression lane can truly exhale? That is what should be of paramount interest to those that have chosen to dance naked in the market square all because a still-fragile economy is now awake enough to gasp for breathe after clutching its way out of a deadly recession!

  • 7 million Nigerians suffering from stress, depression, says expert

    No fewer than seven million Nigerians are suffering from stress and depression, Society of Family Physicians of Nigeria (SFPN), Ekiti Zone Chairman, Dr. Olabode Shabi, has said.

    Speaking at a lecture organised by the Information Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Ekiti State, Shabi described stress as an exaggeration of response to events and life-challenges that make a person feel threatened or upset in some ways, adding that depression is a common mental health problem affecting 29 million people in Africa out of an estimated 322 million people worldwide.

    In a paper titled: ‘’Stress and depression in  workplace: Strategic approach to management, Shabi, also the Chief Consultant Family Health of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti, identified major causes of stress in workplace to include ambiguity in the job schedule of workers, career development pressure, poor working environment  lack of job security, fear of redundancy and early retirement, struggling to meet unrealistic targets, poor interpersonal relationship with the colleagues and superiors as well as low trust level and lack of problem sharing among workers.

    Stressing that no human being has immunity from depression under certain circumstances, Shabi highlighted major symptoms of the condition to include persistently sad moods, loss of pleasure in usual activities, feeling of helplessness and guilt or worthlessness, fatigue or decreased energy, loss of memory and concentration, loss of decision-making capability, poor abstract reasoning, restlessness, irritability, sleep disturbance and loss in appetite or weight.

    The SFPN Zonal Chairman listed major causes of stressful life conditions to include low literacy level, poverty and short life expectancy and negative life events such as bereavement, job loss, financial difficulties, divorce, loneliness, childhood abuse and neglect medical illnesses and exposure to chronic pains as well as imbibing some mentally stressful lifestyles, such as misuse of certain prescription drugs and abuse of substances such as cocaine, narcotics and alcohol as causes of depression outside the workplace.

    The medic identified strategies for managing stress to include avoiding unnecessary stress, reducing job stress by improving emotional intelligence, creating time for fun and relaxation, better management of one’s time, be willing to compromise, reframe problems, focus on positive things, accepting things one cannot change, sharing feelings with friends, resolving conflict  positively, adopting healthy lifestyles, exercising regularly, eating healthy diet, avoiding alcohol, cigarettes and drugs reducing sugar and caffeine as well as getting enough sleep.

    Earlier, the Permanent Secretary , Ekiti State Ministry of Information, Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Kola Ajumobi, advised workers to pay more attention to their health to reduce their chances of becoming victims of sudden death syndrome.

    Ajumobi described the lecture as  timely, stressing that more attention was  needed to achieve good health in view of the prevailing economic recession and incursion of killer and sometimes unfamiliar diseases such as hypertension, depression, Ebola, Lassa into the society.

    Ajumobi, who noted that health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, emphasised that people should  not wait until they fall sick before becoming mindful of their health emphasising that prevention is better than cure.

  • Recession-induced depression on the increase

    Recession-induced depression on the increase

    A Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Adeyemi Egbeola, on Saturday in Lokoja, decried the increasing rate of recession-associated clinical depression in Nigeria.

    Egbeola, who works at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Lokoja, made the assertion at the 2017 Annual General Meeting (AGM), Scientific Conference Week of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Kogi chapter.

    The theme of the conference was: “Economic Recession and The Rise of Depression”.

    According to him, a significant association have been demonstrated between macroeconomic indicators in recession and clinical depression as a mental illness.

    “For every suicide committed, there is an average of 20 attempts (ratio 1:20), due to unemployment, self-rated mental health, debts, financial difficulties and other common mental health issues.

    “Depressive disorder account for 80 per cent suicide, and hopelessness is the most predictive indicator of suicide, a depressive thought pattern.

    “In 2015 from January to November, record show that 25, 267 patients were treated on mental health at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba Lagos, while the number increased to 53,287 in 2016 within the same period.

    “At the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, at the Adult Out-Patient Department (OPD), 3,500 patients were treated in 2015, while the number rose to 4,311 patients within the same period in 2016,” Egbeola said.

    He urged the Federal Government to intensify training and supervision of low level manpower at the Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC).

    The consultant psychiatrist said that government should also provide cheap, but effective medications and use of routine screening instruments to facilitate detection and reaction.

    He also called for strengthening protective factors and mitigation of stressor, promotion of healthy lifestyle, adequate sleep, exercise, nourishing balanced diet, and avoid smoking and moderate use of alcohol.

    In his remarks, Gov. Yahaya Bello, commended the NMA for their support and commitment in delivering quality healthcare services to the people of the state, calling for more synergy and collaboration.

    Bello said that the health sector had been one of the top most priorities of his administration, restating his commitment to use the available resources to better the lives of citizens.

    He said that six ambulances were recently distributed equitably to six local governments across the three senatorial districts of the state.

    Bello, represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Edward Onoja, said that recruitment of health workers were ongoing in the state.

    The governor said that the state government had initiated a healthcare package tagged, “Bello Healthcare Plus” for women and children to be receiving free treatment and drugs across the 21 local government areas of the state.

    Bello, however, urged the people to take advantage of various social intervention and agricultural programmes available to them in the state to improve their standard of living.

    In his speech, the NMA Chairman, Kogi chapter, Dr Godwin Tijani, said that the meeting was part of the advocacy aimed at improving the healthcare services to the people of the state.

    Tijani said that the theme of the 2017 AGM “Economic Recession and the Rise of Depression”, was carefully selected due to the current economic recession in the country.

    According to him, the programme will enable them to examine the implication of economic recession and come up with suggestions on how to reduce the rise in depression in the society.

    “It remains our firm goals and beliefs that Kogi NMA, partnering with the state government will turn around the poor health indices in the state, especially reducing maternal and perinatal mortality.

    “We commend the sincere efforts and achievements of Gov. Yahaya Bello in the health sector since inception of his administration, and the cordial relationship NMA has been enjoying with the government.

    “NMA also commend the singular act of reinstating and payment of salaries and arrears of our colleagues employed in 2015,” Tijani said.

    He, however, appealed to the governor to look into the issues of eight of their members that were still on the uncleared list and many members that were still grossly underpaid. (NAN)