Therapy doesn’t mean you’re MAD, I remember telling someone sometimes ago I have a therapy session, and the first thing he asked was “Are you mad” grinning from ear to ear. Which isn’t true, but you can’t blame him because many don’t have knowledge about how important it is for your mental health to be in shape.

Therapy is simply a process of meeting a Therapist to solve issues you might be facing. Could be behaviors, feelings, relationship or marital issues. It’s for mental health disorders like depression, bipolar, PSTD etc.

Therapy help live a peace and fulfilling life. It doesn’t solve mental issues alone, you could be overwhelmed or going through stress and talk to a therapist. The therapist gets to give solutions on how you can manage these situations. Counselling gives room for a non-judgemental environment, It also helps discover your inner self.

The reasons why Nigerians don’t take therapy serious;

1: Poverty Many Nigerians are trying so hard to live above the poverty line, and they don’t even have money to afford a therapist. It is likely that the rate of mental illness will continue to increase because of the high poverty rate.

2: No proper healthcare system Many Nigerian healthcare practitioners aren’t sensitized about many mental health disorders. They don’t even believe that someone can have mental illness. The mental health Centers are only available for the rich people.

3: Stigmatization In Nigeria, many expect you to snap out of a mental illness or pray. Mental illness makes one lose motivation for anything at all, so snapping out of it doesn’t work. The society is too quick to judge. For instance, there’s someone in your area who dresses shabby  Probably the person has lost touch of herself at that point, but rather than find out what’s going on with her, they start saying “is she mad”.

4: No awareness or sensitization There’s no plan of making people aware of these mental health issues, many don’t even know they have mental illness because they believe it’s stress, and they’ll be fine afterwards. I hope the government pay attention to mental health facilities and improve.