Why Mad People Are Branded Kidnappers

There are childhood factors such as children with poor Intelligent Quotients who are mentally retarded and those with learning disabilities. The elderly too can also suffer from dementias and Parkinson’s disease. These disorders can also be hereditary and could be passed from parents to children. Nonetheless, the amount of stress that we encounter on a daily basis especially those living in major cities can trigger any of these mental disorders especially for those who have not acquired the skills of stress management.

Can mental illnesses be cured? The answer is a resounding yes! Yes!! And Yes!!! Mental illnesses have grades or severity just like any other physical ailment. Mental illness would start mildly for a period of time, if unattended to, it gives moderate signs and symptoms and eventually it turns to a severe illness. When these conditions are in their mild stages, they are not usually recognised by the suffering individuals or their close relations. They may visit the hospital but the irony of these controversial ailments is that they share similar signs and symptoms with malaria (body weakness, tiredness, loss of appetite and weight, sleep disturbances, mild confusion, irritability and short temperedness) at the initial stages. This is one major reason why family physicians and general medical practitioners find it very difficult to recognise the initial signs and symptoms of mental illnesses. This inability for physicians and close relations to quickly recognise the signs and symptoms of mental illness foster the supernatural beliefs of causation of mental illness. The faith-based healers are quick to capitalise on the faulty beliefs of the sufferers and close relations of these sufferers by reinforcing their beliefs that the “persistent confusing illness” is a spiritual or cultural attack. Even when an educated individual recognises the signs and symptoms he or she is experiencing as being those of mental illness, he is likely to deny the symptoms and may also avoid consulting with the appropriate mental health specialists because of the associated social stigma attached to mental illness. This again explains why 80 per cent of individuals with mental health challenges do not get to see a professional mental health expert until the illness gets to its severe form.

All types of mental illness can be cured if attended to by the specialist mental health expert on time, just like physical ailments. However, by the time sufferers get to see the experts, it usually takes about four to six years and the illness would have turned chronic. Today, all over the world, there are medications for all types of mental illness. Mental illnesses can be totally cured and the ones that cannot be totally cured (just like severe hypertension or diabetes) can easily be managed. Good and affordable medications are now available in Nigeria for all types of mental illness. Apart from the specialist psychiatrists in specialist hospitals and teaching hospitals, there are clinical psychologists, mental health nurses, occupational therapists and psychiatric social workers that can also carry out individual and group psychotherapy (counselling) for the mentally-ill people to enhance quick recovery. The only challenge is that these specialist psychiatric hospitals and teaching hospitals are all in major cities of Nigeria. They are not accessible to a majority of Nigerians who live in the rural areas or outskirts of such capital cities.

What are the government policies on mental illness, and on individuals living on the streets suffering from chronic mental health issues? At this present moment, Nigeria does not have its own mental health law or other enabling laws with regards to the mentally ill. Likewise, there are no specific laws in the Nigerian statue to protect the rights of the mentally ill in regard to; employment, housing; discrimination and social exclusion of individuals with mentally illness, abuses by faith-based and in traditional treatment facilities. This is so because policymakers in health often lack public mental health skills. Again, policymakers at the helm of affairs at the ministerial levels are trained in public physical health which doesn’t include mental health. The Federal Government does not have a specific budget for mental health in Nigeria.

Is lynching of the mentally-ill the solution to their problems? Periodic no! The mentally-ill are now victims of the social tension caused by frustration, poverty and restless unemployed ignorant youths in the country. The protective arm of government who also shares in the ignorance of the populace about mental health often stands by and watches the human rights abuse and lynching of the chronically mentally-ill. The chronically mentally-ill people are often not coherent and rational in their speeches. Thus, they find it difficult to explain or refuse the allegations that they are ritual killers or kidnappers. Sometimes, they may even agree with the mob that is ready to lynch them (like the “bird woman” who claimed to be a flying witch a couple of days ago as carried by major dailies).

Killing of mentally-ill people suspected to be witches is not new. It happened in Europe many centuries ago. Elderly women, widows and those who were confused, defenceless were accused as witches. Thus, millions of women and some men were arrested, tortured, stoned to death, burnt on stakes, lynched or killed in countries such as Germany, Italy, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxemburg and Netherland. The hunt for witches started in the 13th century when two authors, Jacob Sprienger and Heinrich Kramer, wrote a book, titled, “Malleus Maleficarum” (Hammer of Witches) in 1484. The book was based on folklore imaginative stories about who are witches, what they do, how to recognise and ways of eliminating them. The book also got the blessings and endorsement by Pope Innocent VIII. However, after 200 years of eliminating millions of suspected witches, at about 1631, medical doctors were writing about mental health illnesses such as depression, seizures and epilepsy. Medical doctors were able to argue and demonstrate that changes in behaviour, confusion, and behavioural abnormality were not signs of being a witch but medical conditions; and that such people were not possessed by demons but mentally-ill. Based on this new information from medical doctors, the hunting, stoning and killing of suspected witches ended in the entire Europe. The formal medical care and humane treatment of the mentally-ill therefore commenced in Europe.

The book, “Hammer of Witches”, was later condemned by every country in the world. It was even claimed to be “The most damaging book in all the world of literature.” Four centuries after the abolition of stoning, lynching and killing of those suspected of suffering from mental illness who were alleged to be witches in Europe and all the advanced countries of the world, the phenomenon may appear to be catching on in Nigeria. The severely mentally-sick individuals living on the stress are now being branded witches, ritualists or kidnappers in our country and are being attacked by superstitious mobs.

Concluded

Culled From Vanguard

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