16 Jul WHAT IS NORMAL
“There is no standard normal. Normal is subjective. There are seven billion versions of normal on this planet.” — Matt Haig
More than regularly we hear individuals juxtapose mental health challenges or troubles as “Not Being Normal”. It would have been nice if it was used in the context of “She’s got some kind of superpowers, she isn’t ordinary”, but no, we’re talking this context: “That boy ain’t like us, he’s not normal”. What precisely do we evaluate as normal? What is normal?
It is considerably more disappointingly fascinating that a society like our own tosses the notch through the rooftop, ensuring it breaks out of the rooftop and falls outside of wherever that roof is situated. We don’t shake tables with our words or actions, we break tables. As nationals of Nigeria we subliminally feed the shame encompassing mental health with a large ladle. We are not discussing the minor soup spoon that was most likely used to serve Oliver Twist, we are discussing that huge owambe soup spoon our Nigerian moms bring out from storage when the time has come to cook for a major family party.
From adolescence you are already being instructed on what kind of individual to marry, particularly reminding you to “look well and ensure she isn’t from a group of frantic individuals” (usually we’ll say mad people .. yoruba would say ‘idile awon were’); or there is the regular doubt that somebody must be abnormal to take the plunge by committing suicide. Neglecting to acknowledge suicide is definitely not a spontaneous gesture like “Hello today, I’m so bored I will kill myself”. Have you seen how we treat individuals who have fought to the point that they choose they are finished with life?… No that isn’t a joke, no your comical satire isn’t charming! These are only a portion of the few different ways we have made it alright to vilify mental health. How can you not realize that your emotional wellness plays a critical role to physical health? Your brain can get sick too, it is a part of your body — the control tower for that matter!
In the expressions of Luvvie Ajayi … we are judging you all and we need to do better! We should teach ourselves about psychological wellness, there’s support, there’s help, you can be better, you can live your best life! We [LPM/ProjectGetNaked] are not by any means the only ones giving all our efforts to the issues of psychological health and advocating mental wellness. Young innovators such as, @shewriteswoman, @mentallyawareng, @doctoorahealth, @thesiweproject, @psyndup, @sanemindng, @ndidi.health, @soundmindafrica and numerous more are working perpetually to make mental health care a priority in Nigeria. What are you doing as a member of the Nigerian community in regards to mental health?
Tell us some of the ways mental illness is being disparaged in our society and what you are doing to make individuals mindful of the significance of mental health.
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