Even in 2021, mental health issues are being treated as some sort of taboo. People will stay silent and refuse to talk about it instead of asking for help. What baffles me the most is that people think mental health issues are some made-up stuff but in reality, it’s totally the opposite. Mental health issues are just as bad as your physical illnesses if not more. You don’t believe me? Well, then listen to this. A report just came in that says a mother killed her own child in Ghanadue to post-partum depression. If that’s not an illness, then tell me what illness really is? What more proof can one provide?
It’s high time we start talking about mental illness and out in the open and that will encourage more people to open up as well. The more we communicate and open up about our issues, the sooner we will heal. Unfortunately, this mother didn’t get the help that she needed in time and she killed her first child and that too a 7-month-old baby. She was suffering from a post-partumdisorder. She didn’t mean it and being a psychologist myself, I can tellshe wasn’t herself when she did that. Mental illness can make people do things that they can’t even imagine.
A post-partum or a prepartum disorder is a series of stages of mental illness that a pregnant woman could suffer from during and after the pregnancy. ‘Pre’ being during the pregnancy and ‘post’ being after the delivery. Apparently, she had prepartum depressions as well but the sudden influx of hormones and her happiness because of her first pregnancy masked the symptoms of the mental issue. This made her appear just as normal as any other pregnant ladies and considering the fact that she lives in Ghana, her doctors totally failed to detect that. But she was nearing her third trimester, she started to get a little hectic but that’s to be expected around the stage of the third trimester and so nobody had any suspicion.
But after the delivery of the child, that influx of hormones starts to subside and within an interval of 6 months, hormone levels return to normal and everything that was masking her symptoms is now gone and soon the symptoms start coming into the light. There are three stages of a post-partum disorder. The first is ‘baby blues’ which can happen when the hormone levels drop substantially and that usually goes away within a week or 2 but her being suffering from Post-partum disorder, it didn’t go away. Instead, it went to the second stage which is post-partum pregnancy and at this stage, the patient may feel severely overwhelmed, anxious, sudden irritation, hopeless, intense around the baby, among others which wouldn’t have much big of a deal if she had gotten help.
But she didn’t and so she went into the 3rd stage, a full-blown post-partum psychosis that is a lot severe and can cause powerful symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, suicidal thoughts, and thoughts about harming the baby. The patient cannot control these symptoms and that’s why immediate was necessary.According to a recent survey, Ghana has a population of 31 million but a fraction of the percentage of people actually knows what this illness is.Like her, many mothers in Ghana, Africa don’t get the help that is necessary as the post-partum disorder is one of the most misunderstood illnesses of all time. Our advice to mother and mother-to-be is not to feel it as embarrassing when asking for help. According to an article by WHO, only a select few people with mental disorders get the psychiatric help that is needed, especially in Ghana and that results in the news of innocent children dying.
No matter what people say, if you feel there is something wrong and that you need help, then do not hesitate. Only doctors specializing in the field of psychiatry and psychology can get the help that is needed.In recent years, Ghana has been developing rapidly and there are care centers for your every need. So, where can you contact if you feel that you need help? Well, for starters you can contact Accra Psychiatric Hospital which is open 24/7 for you at all times or you can also contact various private psychiatric health care centers. Don’t feel embarrassed. Asking for help is the first step in the process of having a healthy life for yourself as well as for the loved ones you care about so much.
