Uncertain, trying times can trip into anxiety, mood disorder, expert warns

A mental health expert, Professor Boladale Mapayi says that Nigerians, particularly with the cash crush, insecurity and fake news, must learn to manage their emotional wellbeing in these trying times to avoid mental health problems like anxiety and mood disorders like depression.

Professor Mapayi spoke at the March 2023 edition of the Interactive Monthly Community Engagement (IMCE) event of the Asido foundation with the theme “Managing your Emotional Wellbeing Through Uncertain and Trying Times”.

Mapayi, a consultant psychiatrist at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), Ile-Ife, Osun State said trauma from these uncertain incidences are important in mental or emotional wellness but underplayed even as it could impede productivity, health and wellness.

 She stated that emotional wellbeing is all about the ability to successfully handle life’s stressors and produce positive emotions, mood, thoughts and feelings while adapting when confronted with adversity.

The don, while noting that stress is inevitable but distress is not, declared that common red flags denoting mental health issues include eating or sleeping too much, being withdrawn from friends and family, mood swings, hopelessness and helplessness as well as low or no energy.

In addition, feeling numb, unexplained aches and pain, increase use of drugs, including alcohol and painkillers, persistent thoughts and memories that one cannot get rid of, hearing voices or believing untrue things and thinking of harming self or others can also be suggestive of a mental health problem.

According to Professor Mapayi, “if the stressor continues to come over you in waves again and again, if you don’t do something about it, it is likely that one could come down with those negative mental health issues.”

She said mental health can be promoted by maintaining good physical, emotional, social and spiritual health, inclusive of eating healthy, exercising, undergoing regular health and fitness checks rather assuming one is fit, reducing alcohol consumption, maintaining a positive outlook, laughing often and optimising sleep.

“You will solve 50 percent of your health problems if you can eat well, sleep well and if keep your body moving. Physical health is intricately linked to your mental health and once one goes down, the other is likely to follow.

“Laughing all the time to promote mental health; laugh well at least once a day even if there is no joke. It stimulates the feel good hormone irrespective of whether you had a joke before laughing or not. Keeping a gratitude journal is so important and focusing on things that we can control rather than things that we cannot control.”