WHY I DO WHAT I DO

My sister is just 19 years but she has been mentally ill for about 2years. She used to be my pretty, respectful and very smart little sister until the mental illness struck. First we noticed that she became seemingly ‘excessively’ religious. She started condemning everyone and everything. We tried talking her out of these ‘wrong ideas’ but that did not seem to work. Then she started withdrawing from all of us and would prefer to stay in dark rooms all by herself. She could go on for days like that and would not even have a bath. Then we noticed she was talking to herself as if she was conversing with someone. At this point we knew Timi (not real name) needed help because she told us she was hearing voices of unseen people discussing her and insulting her. We spent the next two years moving from one place to another trying to find a solution. We had endless prayers and made several attempts to take her to some prayer places but she would usually run away from home. Then she started becoming violent and on one occasion she attacked our mum. On several other occasions she threatened that she was going to hurt someone. After a year, Timi was not getting better and we were all quickly running out of patience and almost at the brink of accepting this as Timi’s fate; to be the odd one (mentally insane) in the family. Someone suggested that we should take her to a psychiatrist hospital but my mum was adamant that God had to supernaturally “heal” her. She never even considered the possibility that God could also use doctors in Timi’s case. After all there is a popular saying that  “Doctors treat but it is God that heals”. After being frustrated by how deplorable Timi’s state had become I approached a psychiatrist. I narrated our ordeal to him and he later came for a visit. He placed her on medications and to our pleasant surprise Timi began to improve. For almost two years Timi seemed lost in a world warped by the mental illness but now, just less than three months after the commencement of her treatment by the psychiatrist, Timi is now fine and she is even thinking of going back to school. Segun -Lagos. Nigeria

My name is Otefe Edebi and I am a psychiatrist (a medical doctor who specialises in treating mental illness and its associates). I am also a Pastor hence my code name “PDoc” which stands for “Pastor Doctor”.

Segun (not real name) later came back to thank me, because his little sister was now okay. As he poured out his heart in appreciation of the transformation that had occurred, it almost brought tears to my eyes. Timi was just another girl whose destiny was almost ruined by an illness which I dare say can be largely controlled but unfortunately also largely misunderstood. At that moment I was reminded... This is why I do what I do; to restore hope to such lives and to such homes.

Mental illness can be largely managed effectively especially when diagnosed early and intervention is initiated.

On this blog I will be enlightening you on symptoms of mental illness so that it can be detected early, or so that you can know what to do in an already established case of mental illness or even know how to prevent a mental breakdown in the first place.

That way, together, we can properly address this issue in our society.