Nigerians express willingness to discuss mental health, says poll

On the day the World Mental Health Day was marked around the globe, a lot Nigerians said they were comfortable to publicly discuss their struggles with mental issues, a poll conducted by The Guardian showed.

This is contrary to World Health Organisation (WHO) objections that the universality issue of mental health makes a lot of persons struggle to reveal their mental health state with friends and relatives.

According to the World Bank, about 22 per cent of Nigerians at least suffers from chronic depression.The poll was conducted on the newspaper’s website, Twitter and Facebook handles.70% majority of respondents on Facebook said they were willing to share their mental experience with others while the remaining 30% said they would like to keep such themselves.

On Twitter, 65% of respondents also feel there was nothing bad in sharing their mental health experience, but 35% differ to the stance of the other respondents.

76% respondents on the website said there was nothing longer to fear about being stigmatized, as they will share their mental health status, but 24% express fear of being stigmatized and inferior should other people know of their experience in mental health.

In total, a 70% majority of these respondents would confide in others persons on their mental state without any regret, while 30% of respondents feel it is not ideal to share their mental health state with anyone.The poll result shows that Nigerians do not see anything sacred in mental health experience.