By Chioma Umeha
The recent trend of depression-induced suicide
reached a new level in Nigeria weekend, when a doctor jumped off the Third
Mainland bridge into the lagoon. The man reportedly ordered his driver to stop
the vehicle, dashed out of the car, and made for the lagoon while his driver
was still trying to come to terms with the sudden behaviour that had come over
his otherwise calm boss.
The report of the doctor’s suicide is the second
report of such in under 42 hours after a final year student of the Ladoke
Akinola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, committed suicide in the early
hours of Saturday March 18.
Also, a day after the 35-year-old medical doctor
committed suicide by jumping into the lagoon at the Third Mainland Bridge,
another of such incidents was recorded when a woman jumped into the lagoon in
the Maza-Maza area of Lagos State.
Though the unidentified woman was lucky as the
timely intervention of local fishermen and divers in the area rescued her
before she could drown, experts have expressed worry over the rising trend in
depression and its consequences.
They have therefore urged the Federal Government
to take urgent steps to address the current economic challenges in the country,
to check the rate of suicide among Nigerians.
The World Health Organisation reports that every
40 seconds, one person commits suicide somewhere in the world, which tallies to
800,000 suicides annually.
The experts noted that in the last few months in
Nigeria, cases of suicide that came to public knowledge had increased and
stressed the need for increased government attention in reducing the problem.
Dr Stephen Oluwaniyi, a Consultant Psychiatrist at
the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, identified poverty, high debt,
deprivations, unemployment, job stress and insecurity as related to the current
economic challenges in Nigeria.
Oluwaniyi said that the recession was affecting
the mental health of some Nigerians, adding that it had also triggered high
cases of depression, attempted suicide and other forms of mental illnesses.
He, however, advised members of the public not to
be silent about their emotional and psychological problems but seek help from
mental health experts.
A Clinical Psychologist, Mr. Nathaniel Ayodeji of
the Mental Health Foundation, said that suicide had a lot of underlying factors
such as feelings of pain, loss, depression, broken relationships and hopelessness.
Ayodeji said that although suicide was regarded as
a despicable act in the nation’s culture, many people had been forced into the
act as a result of frustration, economic pressures and sense of hopelessness.
“This social problem is a threat to the future of
our country and the government needs to act immediately by fixing the economy
before the situation goes out of control, ” Ayodeji said.
Rev. Fr. Albert Ebosele of the Holy Family
Catholic Church, Sokoto state, called on parents, families, relations,
neighbours to watch out and observe others.
This he said was necessary to prevent sudden
behavioural changes that might lead to suicide.
“The government, family, institution and
individuals can save the situation. We should observe our environment and be
watchful of people living around us.
“The government and orientation agencies should
develop orientation campaigns and counseling in schools, markets, workplace, to
advocate change and impart on peoples’ behaviour.
“People should look up to God and seek His help
instead of ending their lives,’’ he said.
Also, Dr Bolanle Ajayi, a Psychiatrist at the
Federal Neuro- Psychiatrist Hospital, Yaba, advised Nigerians to adopt proper
income planning and management of their emotions.
The precautionary measures he said became
necessary to prevent the high rate of mental illness which could be due to the
current economic recession in the country.
“No doubt about it, there is economic recession
going on in our country and a lot of people are being affected.
“Even in our wards now, we see a lot of people
coming down with depressive illness, suicide, depression, deliberate self-harm
and by the time we look at the primary cause of these illnesses, it is actually
this ongoing recession.
“Some people are psychologically affected,
socially affected and emotionally affected.
“Some people have the ability to bring it out and
get over it while some of us do not have such abilities.
“However, the general advice to the public in this
economic recession is that, you do your beat, whatever you earn, you have to
plan.
“The era of I spend the money immediately the
money comes is gone.
“The era we are now is, when the money comes you
sit down on a roundtable in your house and do a proper plan on your money.This
is because you don’t know when another one will come in.”
Commenting on the medical doctor, Dr. Allwell
Orji, who recently committed suicide by jumping into a Lagos lagoon, Abiodun
Adewuya, a professor of psychiatry at the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital (LASUTH) and a psychiatrist, said: “The problem is what we have been
saying that challenges and any little thing can make people take their lives.”
Dr Charles Umeh, a senior lecturer, Lagos
University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, said that many factors could be
responsible for such occurrences, adding that they might be unexpressed
depression that people might not notice and victim relapses from talking to
people.
Umeh said economic downturn or disaster can also
be responsible for this kind of action.
He said: “If you look at the depressed economy
making people to lose their jobs or sources of income that can lead people to
committing suicide.
“Personality characteristics, some people have low
tolerance for stress, so whenever they have problems they cannot cope, they
feel overwhelmed and frustrated. Such people worry too much over things and
this could lead them to start feeling hopeless and helpless, the result is to
start thinking of suicide.
“Some other people could be hearing voices
–hallucinatory experiences, that is auditory hallucination either commanding
them to do certain things or running derogatory commentary about their
activities. Some of them actually obey those voices telling them to jump out of
a moving car or into a river or even to do more terrible things.”
Medical experts explained to Independent that
auditory hallucinations are false perceptions of sound, describing them as the
experience of internal words or noises that have no real origin in the outside
world and are perceived to be separate from the person’s mental processes.
They said that a common form of auditory
hallucination involves hearing one or more talking voices. This, they agreed,
may be associated with psychotic disorders, and holds special significance in
diagnosing these conditions.
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