It is indisputable that family relationship affects one’s mental health and I feel people don’t have this conversation as much as they should,
I really want to talk to you about it, are you in?
I might not be a great guesser but there’s a high chance your parents, siblings etc have done things that messed you up emotionally then and maybe even up till this day.
Kinship links are by far an important determinant of an individual’s mental state, owing to the fact that family is the most basic and primary yet vital unit of an individual’s life.
In simpler terms, if there’s a fault at the family or kinship level, there’s prone to be a fault in the personal life of the related individuals.
It is important to know Mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders etc, are more common than we are aware of.
Little wonder when children begin to behave weirdly, we usually want to know first, if everything is okay at home.
Those are just few of the questions asked, it is quite evident that the family has a huge job to do in shaping an individual’s mental health.
Honestly, the result is almost nothing close to surprising, owing to the fact that there’s a common misconception about discipline and abuse.
It is imperative to always have in our present consciousness that there are healthier options to handling things in our families or dealing with our emotions rather than causing harm to the people we call family. You might not realize the psychological and emotional effects of what you say or do to them now. Only time gets to tell.
In conclusion, family and mental health is just a big balance scale, if the family isn’t in simultaneous performance, it may influence the mental state of the individuals involved.
I hope you are staying safe, hygienic and practicing social distancing. Sending love 💕.
CHINWEKENE ❤️
It is important to know Mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders etc, are more common than we are aware of.
The 2016 Annals of Nigeria Medicine article, Mental health disorders in Nigeria: a highly neglected disease, reported that ‘In Nigeria, an estimated 20%–30% of our population are believed to suffer from mental disorders. This is a very significant number considering Nigeria has an estimated population of over 200 million’ their article also reported that the global burden of mental health disorders is projected to reach 15% by the year 2020’.
This statistic is very heart wrenching, although being from 4 years ago, is not a very accurate estimate of the amount of people with mental illness issues in Nigeria and globally at the moment.
Several factors may be traced as being the cause of mental illnesses but I would only look at the one related to this article which is:
• Psychological factors such as severe psychological trauma; physical, emotional, verbal or sexual abuse by one’s family and family neglect may contribute to the mental health of an individual already susceptible to mental illness.
To prove that these stressors were the likely causes of several mental health issues in individuals, I decided to conduct an anonymous online survey, of which had 50 participants. They answered items relating any mental illness they’ve had or have to their family links.
The results of this survey showed that 59% of the survey sample agrees that their family was/is the reason for their depression. 57% of the survey sample agrees that they wished they were not a member of their family because of past family experience. About 2/4th of the survey sample have wished their parents are not theirs because of the same reason. 3/4th of the survey sample agrees that they have been verbally abused by their family. About 52% of the survey sample believes that they have a low self esteem and it was caused by the trauma from constant abuse by their family.
This statistic is very heart wrenching, although being from 4 years ago, is not a very accurate estimate of the amount of people with mental illness issues in Nigeria and globally at the moment.
Several factors may be traced as being the cause of mental illnesses but I would only look at the one related to this article which is:
• Psychological factors such as severe psychological trauma; physical, emotional, verbal or sexual abuse by one’s family and family neglect may contribute to the mental health of an individual already susceptible to mental illness.
To prove that these stressors were the likely causes of several mental health issues in individuals, I decided to conduct an anonymous online survey, of which had 50 participants. They answered items relating any mental illness they’ve had or have to their family links.
The results of this survey showed that 59% of the survey sample agrees that their family was/is the reason for their depression. 57% of the survey sample agrees that they wished they were not a member of their family because of past family experience. About 2/4th of the survey sample have wished their parents are not theirs because of the same reason. 3/4th of the survey sample agrees that they have been verbally abused by their family. About 52% of the survey sample believes that they have a low self esteem and it was caused by the trauma from constant abuse by their family.
Little wonder when children begin to behave weirdly, we usually want to know first, if everything is okay at home.
Those are just few of the questions asked, it is quite evident that the family has a huge job to do in shaping an individual’s mental health.
Honestly, the result is almost nothing close to surprising, owing to the fact that there’s a common misconception about discipline and abuse.
People really never know when to draw the line. To be fair, people hardly ever know which is which, this isn’t entirely their fault though, because if you look closely, it’s always something they’ve seen as normal, they have been consistently ingrained with a mentality that makes abuse look like discipline.
This becomes an everyday bread for them till they become zombies who when asked about the abuse they experienced, rally around the defense with their evasive coping mechanism which often times is ‘but I turned out fine’.
People often hide behind the curtain of kinship to abuse those they call family, which is very distasteful. Regardless, if you have been abused or going through abuse or neglect, please do speak up to trusted people whenever you are ready or undergo therapy.
People often hide behind the curtain of kinship to abuse those they call family, which is very distasteful. Regardless, if you have been abused or going through abuse or neglect, please do speak up to trusted people whenever you are ready or undergo therapy.
It is imperative to always have in our present consciousness that there are healthier options to handling things in our families or dealing with our emotions rather than causing harm to the people we call family. You might not realize the psychological and emotional effects of what you say or do to them now. Only time gets to tell.
In conclusion, family and mental health is just a big balance scale, if the family isn’t in simultaneous performance, it may influence the mental state of the individuals involved.
I hope you are staying safe, hygienic and practicing social distancing. Sending love 💕.
CHINWEKENE ❤️
Nice write up babyy
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