Accelerating action for women’s mental health vital —Stakeholders

Stakeholders’ consensus was that mental health conditions affecting women are prevalent, and it is critical to accelerate actions to stem them in Nigeria.

Dr Gbonjubola Abiri, a consultant psychiatrist, speaking at the March 2025 special edition of the Interactive Monthly Community Engagement (IMCE) Series of the Asido Foundation, said women are prone to mental health due to a combination of biological, psychological and socio-cultural factors, including gender roles and societal expectations, trauma, abuse and discrimination.

Abiri, also the Director of Women’s Mental Health at Asido Foundation, said that when women develop mental health issues, they face a lot of stigma and a lack of support.

According to her, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were the most common mental health conditions affecting women, with depression affecting women at twice the rate of men.

“Even though we don’t think that it’s that common, women are beginning to come down with eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating disorders, even in a place like Nigeria,” she added.

Dr Nafisatu Hayatuden, also a consultant psychiatrist and deputy director, Directorate of programmes of Asido Foundation, said women’s mental health issues are not given the attention that they deserve because they are poorly understood, poorly identified and recognized.

“Anxiety disorders in the perinatal period are very worrisome, especially with obsessive thoughts, frequent doubts and things like that. Now, this may manifest as a woman being too careful, or not allowing baby visitors to touch her child or not wanting to allow the in-laws to have the baby and things like that.

“You can imagine how misconstrued it would be if, for instance, it’s a first child. The in-laws are not too familiar with her; it can be misconceived as her being overly protective or not wanting the in-laws to have contact with the child when that isn’t the case. She’s suffering from a mental illness and needs attention.

“Everybody leans on the woman, and the woman is expected to be able to support everyone. So, where does she tap her strength from, or whom should she lean on? Also, the societal expectation makes a woman’s trauma, her difficulty, unrecognised or unidentified, and then completely misunderstood.”

“A mental health condition is something that is highly stigmatized. Now, being a woman with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is double stigma.

“Many times we’ve seen our patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, being divorced in the middle of a psychotic episode, when the woman needs support more than ever, and she is thrown out of the house and the children alienated from her.”

Dr Semiloore Atere, the deputy director at Asido Foundations’ youth mental health directorate, said it is important that women overcome the high expectations the society has place on them and find a way to cope with the normal stresses of life while giving their best.

According to her, for women to cope with their normal stresses of life, healthy workplace policies, affordable and accessible child-friendly centres, and routine mental health screenings in hospitals should be implemented, backed up with more financial and educational empowerment for women.

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