BREAKING FREE FROM DEPRESSION

My heart was constantly drawn to Bola (whose actual name was withheld), wondering what had happened to her. Bola is a young and promising Nigerian lady in her late twenties, working as a medical professional in Nigeria. Her older siblings have relocated, and she has been making efforts to do the same. Also, along the line, she wanted to settle down for marriage, but to date, she has not. Well, let's dive into a little about depression.

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Beyond the medical definition, depression is a state of mental destabilization such that the thoughts and feelings of the individual are exposed to potential harmful and physical traumas, which can be morbid or mortal, and oftentimes result from factors that range from sickness to painful experiences such as the loss of loved ones or a feeling of worthlessness.

I have encountered people, and I have also survived depressing situations; however, I'll focus more on Bola. Being a promising young lady, expecting life to fall in pleasant places for her only to be met by the opposite probably pushed her to believe life had little or nothing to offer. I knew she wanted to travel out of the country, and she made plans for it, such as writing the IELTS examination. Perhaps she had some logistics issues that have delayed her travels for about three years that I am aware of.

She has just a friend whom I also know. That's the friend she confides in. By the time she was disclosing to me her state of depression, even her closest friend was not aware of what she was going through. Here, I identified that she was bottling up the pains and hurts alone rather than relieving herself of the burden by sharing with friends or loved ones. The accumulation of these thoughts soon filled her mind and made her see life from a negative perspective. This is common for many people who are depressed; they have nobody to talk to, and even when people are around, they do not feel comfortable or safe discussing their hurtful feelings and thoughts. In situations like this, frequent checking up on them is important. Perhaps it is true that not everyone who tells you they are fine is actually fine. A good number of people are camouflaging their true states.

Bola was diagnosed with elevated blood pressure before the index situation. Being a medic, I have witnessed an upsurge of chronic diseases common with the younger generation, and like we say in medicine, 'never say never' and probably this is why I am not shocked about the elevated blood pressure she had. She complained of frequent headaches and stress, having to travel and work at a distant facility. When I counseled her to check her blood pressure, it fell in the range of moderate to severe hypertension. For a young lady like Bola, we needed to resolve what could be the trigger factors. Her communication was cut off after the diagnosis, and when I tried several times to no avail, I reached out to her friend, who immediately called Bola's mom, only to realize she was hospitalized.

SCREENSHOT IMAGE IS MINE

She eventually responded to my chats via WhatsApp, and that was when I realized she battled depression. It was bad enough for her to think in the direction of suicide. I was shocked and pained, yet I had to rebuke her immediately, citing many reasons why she should rather be thankful than depressed. She was in a different state in the country, which was at least 8 hours away. My approaches could be summarized below:

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• no condemnation.
• Listen without interruption to her as she poured out her mind as I realized she had bottled up many depressive thoughts.
• Identifying the reasons why she hasn't committed suicide and building on those.
• the reasons why she went into depression as potential threats that may precipitate future occurrences.
• Resolving the triggers to the bearest minimum.
• making her pledge to fight the depression and opt for medications when necessary.
• Frequent check on her
• Encouraging her to engage in exercises that will occupy her mind, especially those that are pleasurable to her.

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These and many more. I wished I could invite her over for a change of environment and take her to places to distract her mind, but I was financially constrained. I practically became a 5 and 6 with Bola during the acute phase of depression, and gradually, the situation waned and her life got back to normal.

Though I cannot be perfectly around or available for everyone at every time, identifying those at serious risk of depression helps me offer comfort and solutions to them. If there are organizations or non-governmental organizations willing to be supportive, I will not hesitate to direct those at risk, as the social environment is a culpable risk to depression and its complications.

Thank you for reading. I would love to have your comments and contributions.