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In the book Americanah by internationally acclaimed Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie two Nigerian characters (females) who lived in the USA were talking, one said to the other that she was getting depressed and probably needed a therapist or something, the other replied with shock and disbelief saying that depression was an American condition, that Nigerians do not feel it.

While this might sound funny, the truth is that many Nigerians and Africans consider some health issues like lactose intolerance and every psychological issue to be unAfrican, that Africans don't experience those things. And when Africans go through those things for real many Africans are usually shocked and claim it is due to European or American influence or accuse the sufferer of not being African enough.

This is quite interesting and I am privy to a lot of psychological and social factors, researches and information that provides insight on the matter so in this post I am going to analyse this matter letting you into the peculiarities of the Nigerian/African societies as regards the matter and finally the truth of matter.

Science to Note

Some people would have never fallen in love if they never heard there was such a thing

The above was said by the French philosopher prince François de La Rochefoucauld(1613-1680).

It's a very interesting take that shows how powerful the mind is, just the knowledge of a particular phenomenon can make you open to it, be on the lookout for it and magnify little things to become that phenomenon through your imagination.

Maybe the words of an ancient philosopher are not enough so take a look at this story reported by a psychologist called Bruno Klopfer in 1957, the story is about a patient called Mr. Wright who was dying of cancer and couldn't take the available treatment of the day due to other complications. He was given a worthless drug called Krebiozen and he got better because he thought it was a good drug, when he found out it was worthless, he fell sick again, his cancer returned!

Then his doctor lied to him that Krebiozen actually works but Mr. Wright had received an inferior batch. The doctor now provided what he called superior batch in some days, gave it to him and he became well again. Then after some time he came across conclusive evidence from The American Medical Association that Krebiozen was actually worthless and his cancer returned again and he soon died!

Power of the Mind...

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Just the simple knowledge/conviction of the potency or otherwise of the drug was enough to influence his body to get better or worse.

In page 175 of the book "What the Dog Saw and Other Adventures" by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell reports on an experiment carried out in the 1970s by David L Rosenhan a professor of psychology at Stanford University. He wanted to test how well psychiatric hospitals could tell the sane from the insane.

He picked a painter, a pediatrician, a graduate student, a psychiatrist, a housewife and three psychologists and told them to check into different psychiatric hospitals under different aliases with the complaint that they have been hearing unfamiliar voices saying the words "empty", "thud" and "hollow".

Apart from saying this they were to answer every other question truthfully and behave like they normally would. The hospital staff couldn't tell they were sane, instead they hospitalized them.

The eight subjects were hospitalized, on average, for nineteen days. One was kept for almost two months. Rosenhan wanted to find out if the hospital staffs would ever see through the ruse. They never did.

Rosenhan told them to always write down how they were treated in the hospital and this writing was viewed by the hospital staff as an act motivated by their insanity.

“Patient engaging in writing behavior,” one nurse ominously wrote in her notes.

After this, Rosenhan went to a psychiatric research-and-teaching hospital (which is supposed to be really thorough) and informed them that at some point in the next three months he would be sending sane people to them again. This time, out of the 193 people admitted to the hospital in the next 3 months 41 were identified by at least one hospital staff as being almost certainly sane. They were all wrong, Rosenhan hadn't sent anyone to their hospital like he had said he will.

The Nigerian Situation

In ancient times medicine mostly focused on physiological ailments rather than psychological ailments. It was until guys like Sigmund Freud and other psychologists in the 19th century pioneered and popularized psychoanalysis and treatment of psychological problems that mental health and psychological issues like depression and PTSD became such a big part of the focus.

_{Sigmund Freud: Encyclopedia Britannica}

Now this popularization of the psychological did not occur in Nigeria and about the whole of Africa. So the focus of the masses has remained on PHYSIOLOGICAL ailments. Experts like doctors and students know about psychological issues and there are therapists in Nigeria and amongst the masses a lot of people know of it but not enough people know about it enough; so the culture of only focusing on the PHYSIOLOGICAL has remained.

Couple this with the fact the strength is a highly esteemed and venerated virtue among most African societies. Being brought down by "mere" emotions rather than physical physiological harm is considered quite laughable in most African societies, so this contributes to the lack of interest in psychological issues.

The Scientific Advantage this Gives to Nigerians/Africans

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1. Since depression, ptsd and similar psychological problems are not talked about much among the populace many people are not aware of the phenomenon and this helps them not to magnify their sorrowful feelings. The lessons learnt from Mr. Wright the cancer patient and François's quote above shows you how the knowledge and frequent talk about phenomenon can make you experience it.

If the existence of depression and ptsd was well known among the populace when a person is sad he might start thinking and getting convinced he's probably getting serious depression that requires therapy and this thought might magnify their sadness as we can learn from Mr. Wright and François's quote. Also they might be on the lookout for it like the psychiatrists in professor Rosenhan's research.

The fact that it's not talked about much clearly plays a role in why cases are less in Nigeria.

2 . And cases being less in Nigeria further helps in making the populace not to be conversant with the phenomenon of depression and ptsd. Because if cases were more common people would talk about it more as they have experienced it personally or have friends and family who have experienced it and gone through therapy and all that. These experiences would make it more talked about, see?

Conclusion

Nigerians get sad, sorrowful and experience ptsd and other psychological conditions like every one else but what I've discussed above clearly makes it less. But then, this unpopularity of psychological issues also makes many who suffer from real psychological problems to not be taken seriously or given quick required help as friends and family would spend a lot of time downplaying it.

In deciding what advice to give after the discussion in this write-up it seems there's a dilemma. What should change in Nigeria? Should the efforts being put in to sensitize the populace on psychological matters be increased? Remember if this increases and people know more about psychological matters and take them more seriously it can also increase people's vulnerability to psychological problems as shown above.

Should the status quo be allowed to continue? Remember if allowed to continue the people who face issues like these would continue to not receive enough attention, timely help and understanding. What do you think?

Roll with @nevies, I run a Humor, deeper thoughts and sex talk blog here on Hive🌚

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