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DR. EZINNE MERIBE: THERE IS NO SHAME IN SEEKING HELP FOR MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES

When the hand is broken, we go to see the doctor.
No, we run to see the doctor.
We know it needs fixing.
No one will see you carrying a broken hand and tell you to suck it up, hide it, you don’t want anyone to know. Of course, no one will stigmatize you for your broken hand.

The intense pain will not let you hide, you will run off to a surgeon and ask him to do something.
We all know the hand is replaceable and we even have two.We have two hands, two legs, two eyes, two ears, two kidneys; nearly every organ in the body can be successfully transplanted or fixed surgically.
You also know that even if you lose those limbs, there are prosthetic limbs you can wear so we have at our beck and call a ton of remedies for fixing a broken limb. Let’s not mention the friends and family that will support you during recovery and take turns by your bed side.Sadly, when your mind/brain is ‘broken’. They tell you to hide it. Don’t seek help. You will bring shame on the family and wrongly so, ignorant people will begin to avoid you and your family.

How else would you fix the mind/brain if you don’t seek help?
Do you have two brains? Do you know anyone that will donate one for you?

Are you looking forward to doing a mind/brain transplant or are there prosthetic minds/brains available for sale? Some people even have the resources to seek help but will hide under the cover of ‘do you know who I am?’. My pedigree? My status? Yet, they are not whole.

The broken mind/brain does not have prosthesis.
The broken mind or brain cannot be transplanted from a family member or donor.
Only you know where it hurts and how it hurts.

Some of us have emotional baggage from our childhood and past experiences that only therapy can take care of. Unfortunately, we can’t place these feelings and its consequences so we are unable to deal with it. It affects our relationships, our performance at work/productivity and our wellbeing. For this reason, some have been tagged as ‘having spiritual problem’ or being possessed while being ferried from one prayer house to another. It is a factor in the domestic violence/emotional abuse in marriage towards spouse and children.

It is no longer enough to tell people to lose weight, to follow a meal plan, to register at the gym, to wake up first thing in the morning to exercise – as long as those deep-seated issues are not dealt with through therapy and inquiry (excavating & uprooting); many of us will continue to use food as a coping mechanism. This is why with my clients, I choose first to focus on behavior remodeling. Sadly, many people don’t want to deal with the real issues they prefer a ‘meal plan’ that will fail them again and again.
You know deep within you that this mind/brain is not ‘working’ as it should and you want to be whole…believe me, there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Mental illnesses are disorders affecting a state and part of the body just like you would have kidney diseases, liver diseases and every other disease that affects a part of the body. Once a disorder in any of these parts result, it becomes an illness. There should be no stigma associated with it, just because they manifest differently is not a cause for stigma either. If we are not stigmatizing the person with a broken hand, we are wrong to stigmatize the one with a broken mind/brain.

Please, don’t let your ‘well-meaning’ pastor tell you ‘we will pray it out’. Why did that other church member who fractured her knee get admitted in the hospital and you all went to see her with baskets of fruits. Why was she not managed in church with prayer and fasting?
PS: Your pastor cannot fulfill every role in your life and a good pastor should be the first person encouraging you to seek professional help.

Yes, in God’s word there is an answer for every situation. Just like we had priests, we had kings, we had men at the city gates, we had scribes. Each one fulfilling a different purpose.
Today, we have therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists. Every wisdom here on earth comes from God. So, the therapists and psychiatrists you will see are acting under God’s divine wisdom just like the pastor is.

Even the psychiatrist is stigmatized.
In my 2nd year of Medical School (about 13 years ago), I heard about the psychiatrist in my city. They said he behaves like his patients, jumps on tables when attending to patients and ‘looks and acts crazy’. I’m sure most people who ‘distributed’ that narrative had never seen this man. I on the other hand have been there during a 4-week posting in my 5th year, never for once did I witness any of the doctors jumping on tables. This is what ‘the danger of a single story’ does to the world of psychiatry.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors who are trained to diagnose and treat mental  illness with medication or evideAccording to the WHO, while information is lacking on mental health and access to mental health in Nigeria is quite limited, it is estimated that at least 4% of the population suffer from depression. I assume this number is very much underestimated thanks to our poor health seeking behaviors (people don’t seek medical help until it is severe).

While there are non-existent desks in the ministries at any level for mental health and only 3.3% of the Federal Government’s health budget goes to mental health, we can do better as individuals. Stigmatization will only lead to more and more people suffering in silence, never getting help and even getting worse. A 4-week therapy session for that woman suffering post-partum depression will go a long way in helping her raise mentally strong children that will neither be neglected nor emotionally abused …but she won’t go for fear that YOU & I will stigmatize/ostracize her and her children.

Summary;
– When we feel pain in our muscles or limbs we see the orthopedic surgeon
– When we feel pain around the abdomen, we see the gastroenterologist
– When our heart hurts suddenly we run down to the cardiologist. No one wants to die of a heart attack.
– When we feel pain in our minds/brains we have every right like every other person who seeks help for pain in other parts of their body to see a therapist or a psychiatrist.

Having a mental illness does not mean you’re broken or weak. far from it. Acknowledging that you have a biological imbalance and need help is the most courageous thing that you can do today: It is a sign of strength, not weakness. I believe everyone deserves a therapy session at least twice a year.
As a psychiatrist rightly quoted, there is no health without mental health.

Mental Health Helplines and Resources in Nigeria
Nigeria Suicide Prevention Initiative: +234 806 210 6493
Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative +234 806 010 1157
She Writes Woman +234 817 491 3329

 

About Ezinne Meribe
Dr. Ezinne Meribe is the host of Beyond A Dress Size podcast; a podcast series that creates stimulating conversations to pull down misconceptions on nutrition, weight loss, health and body diversity while empowering women to live life beyond the numbers on the dress label, scale or tape.
She is the Lead Wellness Coach/Founder at Zinnyslifestyle, where she leverages her professional qualifications and personal experience to teach women how to OWN & LOVE their bodies and LIVE in it fabulously; having successfully won the struggle with being overweight and loving her body. A UK certified Wellness Professional with a Bachelors in Medicine and Surgery (MBBS), she completed her postgraduate training in Public Health at Kumamoto University, Japan. As a Medical Doctor and Public Health Specialist, she continues to promote preventive medicine as the number one way to combat the severe health system constraints in developing countries.

You can connect with her on
Instagram @zinnyslifestyle
Facebook @zinnyslifestyle
Read more on Medium @ezinnemeribe
Or send an email to info@zinnyslifestyle.com

 

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AGGREY MOKAYA’S NGO IS HELPING FEMALE INMATES BUILD THEIR FUTURE WITH TECH

The latest feature in BBC Innovators series is 31-year old Aggrey Mokaya who runs an NGO – Change Hub – bring tech training to women in Langata maximum-security prison, Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

Mokaya, who is also a tutorial fellow at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture, has through his organisation, trained 21 women so far and hopes to expand to every prison in Kenya.
“It’s all about giving people a second chance. It’s all about giving them a chance to tap into the economy they were not a part of before,” he said in the feature by Tamasin Ford and Suzanne Vanhooymissen.

60-80% of all inmates in Kenya will reoffend and land back in jail, according to Kenya Prisons’ statistics from 2014.

Mokaya’s organisation is working to reduce this.

“An ex-convict and a person who has never committed a crime, in the eyes of the law they are the same. So I think they should also be the same in the eyes of the economy, in the eyes of entrepreneurship or opportunities.
“If they are denied opportunities and chances to actually get into a space where they can make something of themselves we are basically setting them up to fail,” Mokoya said.

One of the beneficiaries, Dorcus, 44 who is due to be released later this month after serving half of her 3 and half-year sentence fr forgery had this to say:
When I came to prison I didn’t know computers. Now I can do anything. I can even create you a computer.

I have five children and I’m a widow, so going back to those children is the most important thing to me.

I won’t be moving around having dust on my feet as I don’t have a car.
It will change my life. I will be saving time and money.

Another beneficiary Rahab Nyawira, 35, who was released this year and now runs her catering business is also thankful and grateful she’s making her three children proud.
“There’s nothing you can compare with prison. Prison is the worst place to be but for me it was my turning point.

My website, I can say, it is my superpower in my business. It helps me meet new clients online everywhere in Kenya.

I learnt so many things through Change Hub. I was introduced to HTML, CSS and Javascript. For my website I coded everything myself.

When my daughter sees me now, I feel so proud,” she said.

On why he chose to start with a women’s prison, Mokaya said:
There’s a gender bias when it comes to technology.
If I’m able to impact the life of one woman it means you know there is a knock-on effect. It’s even a chance for her kids to get exposed to that programming early on.
When you talk about wanting to do a technology project everyone says why don’t you go to the men’s prison, or the juvenile prison?
I look at that and say yes it’s important, but it’s secondary. We will get there once we get it right at the women’s prison.

Credit: Bellanaija

 

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FG ANNOUNCES NEW MINIMUM WAGE AS N24,000

The Federal Government has revealed that the proposed minimum wage for the civil servants is ₦24,000.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, stated this on Monday while speaking with newsmen in the State House, Premium Times reports.
Ngige shared that the Federal Government has proposed to pay its workers ₦24,000, while states will pay ₦20,000.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) are willing to go as low as ₦30,000, he revealed, while the organized private sector came down to ₦25,000.
The deliberation on setting a new minimum wage started in 2017 after President Muhammadu Buhari approved a committee to negotiate.

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UK APPOINTS FIRST MINISTER OF SUICIDE PREVENTION

The United Kingdom has, in commemoration of the World Mental Health Day, appointed its first Minister of Suicide Prevention.

The UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced the appointment, naming Jackie Doyle-Price as Minister for Mental Health, Inequalities and Suicide Prevention.
The Conservative Party shared the news on its Twitter, writing:
@theresa_may has appointed the first ever UK Minister for Suicide Prevention.
@JackieDP will lead a new national effort as we work to reduce the number of suicides and overcome the stigma that stops people seeking help.

Mashable reports that Doyle-Price, who was a junior minister in the Department of Health, said:
In my time as health minister I have met many people who have been bereaved by suicide and their stories of pain and loss will stay with me for a long time.
It’s these people who need to be at the heart of what we do and I welcome this opportunity to work closely with them, as well as experts, to oversee a cross-government suicide prevention plan, making their sure their views are always heard.
About 4,500 are said to die by suicide yearly in England, and the ministry’s work will be to see to the reduction of the number, something Doyle-Price has said she’s committed to.

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“MY CHILDREN ARE MY TEACHERS”, SAYS KERRY WASHINGTON AS SHE COVERS MARIE CLAIRE’S POWER ISSUE

Kerry Washington is the latest cover star for Marie Claire‘s Power Issue. For the cover feature, she talks life after tv series Scandal, heading back to Broadway, motherhood, and the Time Up movement.

Read excerpts below:

On the word Power: Honestly, I think about power as more of an internal phenomenon, I tend to think about empowerment for myself so that I have the courage and ability to act on the ideologies and priorities that resonate with me. I’ve always wanted to cultivate a sense of empowerment within myself without seeking approval from outside sources, which is hard to do as an actor, which is part of why producing is so important and which is where some of my freedom, or learning, to take that sense of freedom and bring it to a larger audience and larger space has a lot to do with having my employer be a black woman.

On working on Broadway:  Theater is a big part of why I fell in love with storytelling and with acting and I hadn’t been able to do it for the whole life of Scandal. I love being in the room with your audience. There’s something very meditative and monastic to me about theatre because on TV, every single day is different. To commit yourself to go to the same place and saying the same words and walking the same path, it’s almost like a labyrinth in a monastery or a walking meditation, where the world around you changes but you don’t. You commit to the same task at hand, and in doing that, you learn so much. The last time I did theater, it completely transformed my life. That’s where I met my husband.

On what Motherhood has taught her: Everything. My children are my teachers. There’s a writer that I love, Dr Shefali Tsabary. She writes about conscious parenting, and her paradigm is that we think about it all wrong. We think children come into the world and it’s our job to mold them and create them and teach them who to be so that they can be the best version of themselves, but it’s actually completely upside down. We get sent by God the kids we need so we can grow in order to be the parents they need us to be. The children I got sent came in perfect, and I have to figure out how to grow and evolve so that I can support the truth of them. I’m in a constant state of learning and challenging myself to make room for their perfection and beauty.

On the disparities in representation and action for women of colour in the industry and beyond: It’s complicated to be a woman of colour doing this work because I remember the first time I talked about it in a meeting. I said to the white women in the room, ‘You all roll your eyes when they call it a witch hunt, but for black women in this country, we’ve had our men hung from trees for whistling at white women when they did no wrong. The false accusation of sexual assault is a very real danger for us in a way that doesn’t resonate for you, and so when you wonder why there aren’t more of us in the room, that might be part of it.

It was in that meeting that we were talking about how one of our members got word that there was a powerful exposé being developed around R. Kelly and said, ‘Do we want to get ahead of this?’ It was like, ‘Of course we do.’ It can’t be only the Angelina Jolies and the Gwyneth Paltrows, that we prioritize their pain and ignore all of these underage black women who for decades have been saying, ‘Help me.’ We came forward for them in a statement about R. Kelly, and it was Time’s Up WOC’s first big public action.

Click here for more on Kerry.

Credit: BN
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GET FAMILIAR WITH DR OLA BROWN’S NEW BOOK ‘FIXING HEALTH CARE IN NIGERIA’

Fixing Healthcare in Nigeria is a 40-page book written by Dr. Ola Brown. She is the CEO of Flying Doctors Nigeria, the first indigenous air ambulance service company in West Africa.  Her new book, Fixing Healthcare in Nigeria, is her third book and she has made it available to download for free.

Speaking on the inspiration for the book and the format it was presented in, she said:

“It’s my sincere wish that you consider the modest proposals I forward in these chapters. Perhaps they will spur you to take a fresh look at how we manage healthcare in Nigeria and you might refine them even more or see other steps that we should consider.”

Read an excerpt from the book here:

***

My younger sister died when she was 12 years old. Her death was so shocking, so earth-shattering, that we did not hold a burial or a memorial service. We did not speak of it at all.
It has been over a decade since her death, and I want to tell you about the person who brought so much joy into my life. I want to tell you about the sweet little girl who so deeply loved her family. And I want to tell you about the way she died—and how we could have saved her. She was born in 1992. When I first laid eyes on her, I fell in love. One of the most striking things about Busola was her kindness. Even at a young age, she tried to make breakfast for the entire family—an act that was both entertaining and incredibly touching. She was always trying to help, always serving, always thinking of others.

Even as she lay dying in the hospital bed—alone in Nigeria, without any family around her—she made a simple
request: “Pray for the other sick children around the world.”

Kindness. Empathy. Self-sacrifice.

These were what the world lost when she died. I lost my angelic baby sister. And even though her death continues to influence me, I know that her story is not unique. She is, quite literally, one in
a million. Children die every day in Nigeria. In fact, nearly one million Nigerian children die each year before their fifth birthday, according to the UN. To put this into proper perspective, imagine a Boeing 777: one plane carries approximately 350 passengers. Now, imagine a single Boeing 777, filled with 350 children,
crashing. There would be an international outcry, a full investigation, and a vow to make safety a national priority. To equal our national health crisis, you would need 3000 Boeing 777 plane crashes—every year. 10 crashes per day.

Every year, children like my sister continue to die—yet there is no press coverage, no national attention, all
while our sisters, our daughters, our brothers and sons continue to die in record numbers.

***

To read more, download a copy here. It is a quick and informative read. Highly enlightening and it is something all Nigerians should read. So pass it on, share it with your friends, family, colleagues.

Credit: Bella Naija
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GENEVIEVE NNAJI SIGNS REPRESENTATION DEAL WITH AGENCY REPRESENTING ANGELINA JOLIE AND JOHNNY DEPP

The Nigerian star actress signed the deal with UTA for representation in film, TV, and production recently, Deadline reports.

The agency also represents Gwyneth Paltrow, Channing Tatum, Nicholas Hoult, Ewan McGregor, Kim Soo Hyun and Liv Tyler.

The deal, it is also been suspected, will see the actress collaborating with top Hollywood filmmakers to produce movies from African and Nigerian stories.

UTA is one of the biggest talent agencies in the world that represents many of the world’s most acclaimed figures in every current and emerging area of entertainment and media, including motion pictures, television, music, digital, broadcast news, books, theatre, video games, fine art and live entertainment.

The agency is also globally recognized in the areas of film finance, film packaging, branding, licensing, endorsements and representation of production talent.

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“WOMEN ARE STILL INVISIBLE. THEIR STORIES ARE STILL REALLY NOT HEARD” -CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE

“All over the world today women are speaking up. Their stories are still not really heard,” Adichie said at the opening of the world’s biggest publishing event.

“Women are still invisible. Women’s experiences are still invisible.”

A year after the #MeToo movement went viral and sparked up a global discussion about sexual harassment, Adichie said there was much work left to be done.

“It is time for us to pay more than lip service to the fact that women’s stories are for everyone,”

“We know from studies that women read books by men and women. But men read books by men. It is time for men to read women.”

In a thinly veiled reference to US judge Brett Kavanaugh’s controversial confirmation to the Supreme Court despite accusations of sexual misconduct, Adichie slammed the tendency not to believe victims of such assaults.

“We seem to live in a world where many people believe large numbers of women can simply wake up one day and make up stories about having been assaulted,” Adichie said.

“I know many women who want to be famous. I don’t know one single woman who wants to be famous for having been assaulted.”

Adichie, who divides her time between the United States and Nigeria, said now was an “urgent” moment to stand up for what is right — particularly in President Donald Trump’s America.

“The world is shifting, it’s changing. It’s darkening,” the 41-year-old said.

“The most powerful country in the world today feels like a feudal court, full of intrigues feeding on mendacity, drowning in its own hubris.

“We must know what is true. We must say what is true. And we must call a lie a lie.”

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MARAJI TALKS ABOUT HOW SHE STARTED HER MILLION NAIRA BUSINESS OUT OF BOREDOM

Instagram influencer and comedienne, Gloria Oloruntobi popularly known as Maraji isn’t big on interviews and event appearances and she tells her fans her reason on the latest edition of Rubbin’ Minds with host, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu. 

Maraji, who is popular for her comic multiple personality video clips on Instagram reveals that she began her now 2-year, million-naira business as a way to deal with boredom.

In the interview, she also talks about the challenges of creating her videos, how she makes money off content creation, and future plans.

Watch the video:

Credit: Bella Naija
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GET FAMILIAR WITH NUBAN BEAUTY; THE PREMIUM MAKEUP LINE MADE BY TWO NIGERIAN LADIES

Created by MUA Jane Ogu from Flawless Faces by Jane and Stella Ndekile, a Lagos based Medical Laboratory Scientist and part-time makeup artist. According to the duo Nuban Beauty was born from a ‘great passion for makeup & beauty and the need to provide high quality makeup products with international standard for the African makeup lovers.’

According to their website:

Welcome to NUBAN BEAUTY, a Nigerian based makeup/cosmetics brand dedicated to giving you the very best of makeup and beauty with major focus on providing quality and affordable makeup products designed specially for the African woman.

Our major goal is to bring high quality and affordable makeup products and tools to makeup lovers and professionals everywhere in Nigeria and Africa.

“You cannot achieve good makeup without good tools”  Francois Nars.

In the very near future, we aim to diversify our line of quality and affordable make-up tools and products. Our aim is to serve ladies all over Nigeria and we are thrilled to be a part of your empowerment, beauty and makeup journey.

Nuban are best know for their sumptuous eyeshadow palettes like their ‘Beauty Intensified Palette’ which features 25 colour eyeshadow palette featuring 6 matte shades and 19 shimmers. Its your secret weapon to create stunningly gorgeous eye makeup.

The Nuban Beauty Intensified eyeshadow palette was born out of the need to satisfy and celebrate you, our nuban beauties. Each colour bears a female Nigerian name from the different tribes in Nigeria.

 

 

Credit: Pulse

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