Of depression, moods and the need for a support system

In the fall of 2018, the Mental Health Foundation of the UK carried a rather captivating story. A guy who was only identified as Benj was experiencing severe depression and other mental problems. He started experiencing these when he moved to university. “I thought it was a natural part of the experience-trying to establish social networks and getting to grips with my studies. But looking back it’s clear I became very isolated.” Benj started to spend long periods alone in room, anxious and fearful of meeting new people. He struggled to sleep and make decisions, even to remember that he had left food on the fire. Away from home and his usual support networks, there was no one he trusted to confide in and with all this he struggled to be well but he never was. He was lucky to receive counseling sessions that helped him pull through.

The statistics in the UK put it at 5 of every 16 people being affected by depression. Research has been carried out in our country and it was revealed that 3 out of every 10 northern Ugandans suffer from depression, a mood disorder that causes sadness, downheartedness and gloom. The only limitation in this study is that it was carried out in a single region but imagine we are to take it as a representation of the entire country then that puts the percentage at 30% for those affected by depression. If I am sitting in a class of 300, then that means 90 or so of my classmates are depressed. Disastrous! That figure is astronomical! The minister of state for primary health care, Ms Joyce Moriku during a press conference at the ministry headquarters in April last year noted that depressions is the second leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29 years. You need no expertise to guess why. From coursework results to enervating examinations, to the graduation battle and finally to whether you will be employed or not. But that is only the academics window, the social life has its own revolving door, you are faced with relationship huddles, with financial constraints, ego and prestige fights and with so many life choices. All these can easily take a heavy toll on one.

But these are the moments in our lives that delineate us, that define who we are, exposing our very soft and weak spots but in other times they spell out the turgid variations that hide in the furthest corners of our hearts. The reaction to what befalls us differs depending on the thickness of one’s skin but also by reason of many other factors among them being the support system that holds us up. We have created a society in which people find it harder and harder to show one another basic affection. Despite the fact that millions live in close proximity to one another, it seems that many people have no one to talk to, but even if they do, it is the usual things that dominate everyone else’s conversation.

But the dimensions are different for even those who laugh and have a word for everyone; they struggle with thoughts in the dead of the night maybe because they are afraid to be called weak, or much worse than that is they just can’t find a way to start.

The basic human feeling is not just about what you feel about yourself; it goes further to our ability to empathize with others. The Dalai Lama in his book Ancient Wisdom, Modern World makes the point that this basic human feeling is what enables to enter into, and to some extent participate, in others’ pain. It is what causes us to start a sound of a cry for help, to recoil at the sight of harm done to another, to suffer when confronted with others’ suffering and it is also what compels us to shut our eyes when we want to ignore others’ distress. As  a people who have understood the heavy handedness that depression can exert, we ought to offer shoulders for those in need to rest on but most importantly to be the support system that we can ever be.

When all has been said, we need to ask ourselves three fundamental questions. The first is that, why is there so little known about metal health compared to physical health and yet this is a disease like any other and it kills too at a very high rate? Secondly, why have the older people continually denied the existence of depression and its surrounding ramifications? Lastly but most pertinently, if this is a government that cares about its next generation, why is it mute about their leading killer? Before we get to the bottom of these three questions, we may as well be where we started off.

In truth, like Benj we never know when it starts but just like a physical illness, with time the signs begin to show!

I can’t break off without congratulating the mighty Makerere Law School JESSUP team that made sure the school represents Uganda in Washington. If we all agree that the week started off on a bad note with a recommendation to have the mighty school closed, the tweet by the Vice-Chancellor’s official handle at the end of the week summed it up for us; thank you for flying our banner high.

Blessed week!