By Liz Ombati
Michael Njenga vividly recalls how his problems started. At the age of 18, he suffered a urethral infection. The spasms of pain came and went, but did not know who to tell about his predicament, fearing the rejection by his peers. Turning to his single mother was out of the question.
It took four months of physical and emotional strain before he could open up to a close friend, who later told the story to everyone who cared to listen.
“My trust in people was broken,” Njenga recalls. He became withdrawn and his health problem remained unsolved.
He later borrowed money from a friend and went to a clinic in his Kiambu neighbourhood. After blood and urine tests, Njenga was told there was nothing wrong with him.
“I became more confused and terrible thoughts that I was suffering from a dangerous, unknown condition plagued my mind,” Njenga recalls.
The face of anguish and determination on Flora Muthoni, whose five sons were mentally retarded.
Nine months later, things took a turn for the worse. “There was tightness in the chest that I could not explain. Suddenly, sleep disappeared. I could not sleep at all. That’s when I knew that beyond the infection, something else was troubling me,” Njenga says.
He had enrolled for an Accounting course and his performance nose-dived. “I was losing weight and even my memory was failing me.”
Then he degenerated into heavy drinking, and started hearing voices.
“At night I would hear voices mocking me,” Njenga remembers. “I could not tell anyone, I was so sure someone had bewitched me.”
He retreated further into his cocoon, locking himself in his house, while drinking whatever he could lay his hands on, more so to block the regular hallucinations.
One late night in 1999, Njenga came across a BBC bulletin focusing on mental health. The radio discussion highlighted symptoms that he displayed.
That’s when he renewed his campaign to seek treatment, and his mother finally relented, taking him to a chest specialist, owing to his unusual tightness in the chest.
The chest specialist recommended him to a psychiatrist, after offering him anti-depressants. Njenga had started the journey to recovery.
He has since been rebuilding his shattered life, and is grateful he ultimately secured help after living on the edge for three long years.
Njenga later joined Users and Survivors of Psychiatry in Kenya (USP-K), a support group for people with mental illnesses.
Susan Keter, who is one of USP-K founders says there is a lot of misunderstanding about mental illnesses in Kenya on both the sufferers and caregivers.
“Many people still believe that witchcraft plays a hand in mental problems. USP-K was founded to fill these gaps by providing accurate information and to give a helping hand too,” Keter explains.
USP-K also offers therapy to survivors who meet to encourage one another in their journey of healing. USP-K members also visit rehabilitation centres to fellowship with users of psychiatry and encourage them along the way.
Njenga says he would not wish anyone to experience what he did, explaining that’s why he shares his story to benefit others. “I encourage people to speak out about what they are going through, for that’s one way start the healing, by acknowledging your problem,” he says.
Simon Gichuhi, a USP-K co-coordinator, says most misunderstandings of mental health stem from ignorance. “When someone does not recognise symptoms of mental illnesses, he is likely to stigmatise the sufferer. There is also the worry that sufferers are not able to detect they have problems, so we addresses that, too,” he says.
Njenga notes that early detection is critical to treatment.
“It is best to prevent mental illness in its early stages,” he says.
Gichuhi decries the lack of information on mental illness. “We know very well that challenges of poverty, unemployment, relations between parents and their children are likely to trigger mental illness, but we don’t hear much about that. The media, the Government, the Church don’t seem very keen talk about the subject, yet it is important they do so.”
The prevalence of mental illness is widespread and people need to understand the signs and symptoms in order to arrest the illnesses early.
Standard Newspaper
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