NAN-HG-1
Illness
By Lucy Osuizigbo
Lagos, Jan. 20, 2017 (NAN) A psychiatrist, Dr Bolanle Ajayi, has advised Nigerians to manage their emotions and earnings properly to guard against psychiatric illnesses that may arise because of the economic situation in the country.
Ajayi, who is a Senior Registrar at the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday.
She decried the increasing incidence of depression, attempted suicide, deliberate self-harm and other forms of mental illnesses among people.
Cue in audio (Ajayi)
“No doubt there is economic recession currently going on in our country and a lot of people are being affected.
“Even in our wards now, we see a lot of people coming down with depressive illnesses – attempted suicide, depression, and deliberate self-harm – and by the time we look at the primary cause of these illnesses, it is actually this recession going on.
“Some of them had a lot of businesses they were doing and they were doing very well, but because of this recession, something happened and the businesses are not going on like they used to.
“So a lot of people are coming down (with illnesses).
“Some people are psychologically affected, some others socially affected and others emotionally affected.
“Some people have the ability to bring it out and get over it, while some of us do not have such abilities.
“However, the general advice to the public in this (period of) economic recession is that they should do their beats and whatever they earn, they should plan with it.
“The era of spending all the money when it comes is gone now; the era we are in now is when the money comes you sit down in your house and do a proper plan with your money, because you don’t know when another one will come in.
“As individuals, we have to try and manage our emotions; we have to shift a bit.
“That means that I have to roll with the economic recession so as not to allow my emotional and mental state to be affected by it.
“We don’t want more people breaking down with psychiatric illnesses, because of recession.“
Cue out audio
LCO/YEE
Edited by Emmanuel Yashim
=====================