Mental illness is not spiritual — Expert

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5 years ago

A medical expert, Dr Jibril Abdulmalik, has said that mental illness is due to a disruption in the chemicals inside the brain, and not a spiritual problem, and as such even an individual with mental illness that has roamed the streets for years, if treated at the hospital, can recover and speak rationally and coherently.

Dr Abdulmalik, who spoke at a webinar organized by Opinion forum with the theme ‘Mental Illness: A Spiritual or Medical Problem?’ said religious prejudices and biases and the fact that the major religions talk about demonic possessions had made many people to believe that mental illness is a spiritual problem, even though it is a non-communicable disease like hypertension, diabetes and asthma.

Abdulmalik, a consultant psychiatrist and founder, Asido Foundation, declared, “We now have better understanding about the changes that occur in the brain during mental illnesses, and we know what treatment works for these conditions and they always recover.”

He added, “It will therefore be unwise to discard the knowledge and understanding we have while we are searching for spiritual interventions for conditions that we understand very well and that we can manage medically.

“It’s like looking for a spiritual solution for malaria instead of taking anti-malarials when you have malaria. If you have fever and you suspect that it is malaria, you should buy anti-malarial and take it.”

The medical expert, however, said the burden of mental illness is large and quoted the World Health Organsiation as saying that one in every four persons will suffer from a mental disorder at some point in time in their lifetime.

Dr Abdulmalik noted that majority of individuals that commit suicide have depression as a background mental health problem.

He said suicide is now a public health emergency because every 40 seconds, someone somewhere dies from suicide.

“About 20 million people attempt to harm themselves with the intention of actually dying from it every year,” he added.

The expert lamented human rights abuses of persons affected by mental illnesses.

“Because people are ignorant about what mental health or mental illness is all about, they stigmatize and tend to go away from people who suffer from it. There’s also the problem of wrong attitude, which is prejudice.

“The worst component is where individuals carry out behavioral actions that discriminate against persons as well as their families when they have a history of a mental health problem.

“There should be no more shame, stigma or discrimination associated with mental health problems. There should be no chaining, beating or deprivation of food, physical or sexual abuse or other inhumane treatment in the name of trying to remove the demons that possess the persons,” he said.

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