“It doesn’t have to be a happy ending…”
Facebook: Nicole Daria
Mental illness has many subtypes. Its spectrum ranges from major depressive disorder, anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar depression to post traumatic stress disorder. Because of the stigma related with mental illness, people are very reluctant in seeking professional help. Some stereotypes of seeking help include being unstable, crazy, undesirable or being deemed as social outcasts. People […]
Mental health issues are a huge concern in Africa, and as a Nigerian, it is safe to say we do ourselves a huge disservice in allowing ourselves to be blinded to it. The more we open up to discourse about what is really happening to people, instead of leaning solely on religion to take care […]
“What helped me get better was realizing that it was ok for me not to be this strong person that the culture I was raised in expected me to be”
People experience loss daily. The grief felt as a result of loss is hard to deal with – let alone discuss and process. And, as a Nigerian-American, my experience has been that we often don’t talk about our emotions and many times veer away from topics that lend themselves to discussions about mental health. Unfortunately, […]
A number of aspects of Nigerian culture have maintained themselves as taboo throughout generations. Any iteration of mental crisis, like the suggestion that a loved one may be battling an unhealthy psychological state is often unacknowledged or stigmatized, and therefore not talked about in the ways that point towards healing. In engaging this topic we […]
1,096 days. 26,304 hours. 1,578,240 minutes. It’s been one thousand and ninety-six days since 276 girls were kidnapped from Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria by the terrorist group Boko Haram. One thousand and ninety-six days since hundreds of parents have last seen their daughters and since over 190 girls have known […]
“Once I began to realize that shame was suffocating me, I decided to let go and breathe. This is my story.”