VILLAGE PEOPLE WHO?
Weyer is literally the reason I’m not going to get burned at a stake for having depression, something that, might I add, is a disorder, never the decision of the sufferer. I thought the point of being at the top of the food chain was our ability to think, learn, grow and evolve.
Mental illnesses have been highly stigmatized all around the world but being Nigerian and living in Nigeria with a mental illness is an entirely different ball game but not in a good way. Our society is steeped in superstitions and EVERYTHING is steeped in the idea that some people from your village, could at any point, decide to ruin your life; a mental illness out here is proof set in stone that you either, have offended God, or your village people have decided to tie your destiny, put it in a plastic bottle and then throw it into the ocean. I kid you not. For those who are not Nigerian, your village people are those distant relatives who live in the country and perpetually wish you bad because you live in the city; you shouldn’t eat with them, commune with them or even give them monetary gifts because that is what they would take to the herbalist that would destroy your life (dear Nigerians, does this sound ridiculous enough to you yet?)
I have seen firsthand, how people demean other people’s feelings and experiences as it pertains to mental health simply because ‘they have been bought by the blood of Jesus’ and so depression is not their portion or how they need to pray more to ‘cancel the arrow of the enemy’ and so on and so forth. A large percentage of the population here do not see mental illnesses as medical or psychological — to them it is merely an indication of something spiritual, something evil.
As frustrating and infuriating as it is to constantly be told that I need to be closer to God or my absolute favorite “God forbid! I reject it for you in Jesus name”, I had quite an ambivalent reaction to learning that mental health, from as far back as the beginning of recorded history was considered a spiritual problem. Who would have thought, huh? I was relieved and quite happy to learn that I was not alone and that there are people whose bones are part of my soil who felt the way that I do and were consequently told that they were either crazy, under demonic possession or on the wrong side of God. It was deeply saddening though to learn that people who suffered mentally in some parts of the world in those times were considered witches, ostracized, left to roam around without care and in some extreme cases, killed. To them, unexplainable behavior especially characterized by suffering and upheaval had to be a supernatural thing particularly denoting evil. According to Wikipedia, “In fact, in the Persian Empire from 900–600 BC, all physical and mental disorders were considered the work of the devil”. That’s funny because nothing seems to have changed in over a thousand years.
Really, humans? I thought the point of being at the top of the food chain was our ability to think, learn, grow and evolve. Did something get lost in transmission?
Ancient Persia is not alone in their reasoning because in Ancient Mesopotamia, mental illnesses and diseases in general were believed to be caused by specific deities. “Because hands symbolized control over a person, mental illnesses were known as ‘hands’ of certain deities”. Their doctors kept detailed record of their patients’ hallucinations and assigned spiritual meanings to them. Seeing a pattern here yet? In Ancient China, the earliest record of mental illness dates back to 1100BC. “Mental disorders were treated mainly under Traditional Chinese Medicine using herbs, acupuncture or ‘emotional therapy’”. Thank you China! But still, they believed that demonic possession played a role in mental illnesses. Sigh.
The misunderstanding and persecution of mentally ill people was a fact of life in 16th century Europe and this is where people who suffered were hunted down as witches.
There were few people in history, just as there are few people now, who stood against the barbaric ideas and treatments of mentally ill people like the Greek physician Asclepiades (124–40BC) who practiced in Rome and advocated humane treatments. He basically had insane people freed from confinement and treated them with natural therapy such as diet and massages. I’d take one of those massages please. Another sane person was Arateus (AD 30–90) who argued that it is hard to pinpoint where a mental illness comes from. Don’t worry, I’ll just go ahead and say it louder for the people at the back: IT IS HARD TO PINPOINT WHERE A MENTAL ILLNESS COMES FROM. Johann Weyer (1515–88) was the first physician to specialize in mental illness, or ‘melancholy’ as it was termed then. Historytoday.com states that “Weyer fought the practice of punishing or killing suspected witches, contending that these ‘melancholics’ were not demonic but mentally ill”
Weyer is literally the reason I’m not going to get burned at a stake for having depression, something that, might I add, is a disorder, never the decision of the sufferer. Weyer has been credited as the founder of modern psychiatry for his insight into the mental turmoil of disturbed persons.
Be like Weyer. Truth is, even now, today, people are misunderstood and persecuted for having an illness. We are still shunned, told to keep quiet because of how shameful it is (to be sick), ostracized, judged, mocked and the list goes on. People aren’t killed but the emotional pain that comes with other people’s reaction to mental illness is pretty much the same as being killed. Understand that mental illness is in its name; an illness. There are millions of illnesses in the world, some attack the body, the nervous system, the livers, the kidneys, the heart , the eyes etc.; mental illnesses simply affect the brain.
Stop thinking the same way that people were thinking at the beginning of recorded history. There’s a reason we don’t live in caves or speak unintelligibly anymore, we evolved. Let that same growth happen in your ideas about mental health. Unless your village people are directly employed in the brain disruption arm of Satan’s secret service, I honestly don’t see how they are responsible for you or your loved one’s mental health status; please seek medical help from a trusted psychiatry around you. If you don’t understand something, ask questions; as per the Nigerian adage ‘a person who asks questions does not lose his way’. Your assumptions, sneers, sometimes pity and incessant ‘there’s a prophet in my church who can help you’ suggestions are really not helpful either.
Leave demons alone let demons leave you.
Leave village people alone let village people leave you.
