As women, we need to take care of our mental health – it’s an essential part of our overall wellbeing and one we need to take seriously. Mental health deterioration doesn’t just occur when you get your heart broken by the love of your life; No. It’s a slow breakdown of your mental health, which is usually ignored and ends up becoming a bigger problem.
What is Mental Health?
Mental health is the social, emotional, and psychological well being; in Nigeria, we humorously call it “when all the nuts are intact or not.” Don’t get it twisted; having good mental health does not mean that you must be happy every time. Is it possible to be happy all the time in Nigeria? I’ll leave you to answer that yourself. But overall, good mental health involves how you feel, think, and behave. This means that you have good mental health when you behave alright, otherwise, there’s a need to make some conscious changes as a woman.
Common Mental health Issues Nigerian women Face
If you’re wondering what mental health issues Nigerian women face, here are a couple of them:
- Depression – e.g., I need to get married before 30 (we know ourselves).
- Eating disorders
- Anxiety disorders
- Schizophrenia
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
These are some of the few mental health conditions that Nigerian women face. However, if you want to avoid issues with these mental health conditions, you need to make conscious efforts to do so.
Tips for Taking Care of Your Mental Health as a Nigerian Woman
Ready to take care of our mental health? Here are some of the tips:
- Remain Positive: no matter what you’re facing, you need to be able to see things from a positive point of view. This does not mean you would feel any negative emotions, but only allow the positive emotions to take center stage.
- Talk about how you feel: if you’re feeling emotionally drained, try talking to someone about it; it’s better than bottling it up inside.
- Remain active: no matter how bad things get, try to remain active by moving out, exercising, and doing all the fun things you will like. This improves your self-esteem, and this improves your mental health.
- Drink responsibly: alcohol does not take away your problems, it only makes you temporarily forget it, and when you wake up the next day, you pick up those problem, and feel worse than before. So, drink sensibly to avoid complicating your health.
- Take a break: when you find out that a situation is taking too much toll on you, you can and should take a break. The fear of what people would think has caused a lot of women to live in depressing situations – it’s wrong.
- Ask for help: we get it; some situations are more depressing and overwhelming than others. If you feel overwhelmed about a situation, it’s okay to ask for help from trusted friends or family until you get back on your feet.
- Do something that makes you happy: sometimes, your breaking point can always be your starting point. If you feel down and out, it can also be the best time to do what you have always wanted to do – most women sometimes find a new beginning when they find the zeal to do something that makes them happy.
Conclusion
Being a woman is not easy – not that we’re trying to say men have an easy life – but you can make it work by taking care of your mental health. You get to live a fulfilled life without any form of pressure bringing you down.Even when you’re faced with difficult situations, you know what to do to keep your mental sanity because you know how important it is to do so. So, stay healthy, and live a fulfilled life.
