Breaking the Stigma Women Mental Health

[Applause]

this year

2020 has been a roller coaster ride you

agree

it’s been very hectic the coping

pandemic

has caused there’s been an increase in

fear and uncertainty remember most

likely because of the contagious nature

of the disease

the high mortality rate death rates

but most importantly the economic burden

on us as individuals

so the increase in that causing us a lot

of psychological distress

and depression and anxiety and the least

chronic stress i mean in our society

we’re kind of used to chronic

stress but this has taken up it up a

notch

for many of us some of you will ask

why is a gynecologist which is a woman

health provider

talking about mental health this is why

this year i have seen a lot more

women with symptoms of depression that

i’ve seen in all my years

of practice and that’s more than 10

years

the world health organization says

depression

is not only the most common women’s

health mental health problem but it’s

also

more persistent than women than in the

men twice

actually and you know when mrs harry was

talking

i connected them because one of the

biggest reasons we are

more have more depressive symptoms is

because of the burden

of care responsibility of caring for

others

there was a complication that put out

there that

50 of women that come to see us

gynecologists will have symptoms of

depression

so that means that as i practice i most

likely

will see women with that symptom 50 of

the time

this is why i cannot ignore

mental health as a woman’s health

provider

and what makes it more significant maybe

you don’t know

is that sometimes this depression

actually

relates to or connects to the symptoms

that present to us physical symptoms

gynecology systems and i want to give

you some examples

a few years ago i met a woman who was

maybe in the mid-forties

and she came to meet me which was

referred to me because of

chronic pelvic pain that’s pain in the

lower part of the abdomen

she’s had it for years she’s gone

through batteries of tests

procedures of procedures she now sees so

many other doctors

on so many other medications just trying

to

battle with this pain that will go away

when she met me i looked at all her

tests and all the history and i now said

to her is that you know one this one

area we haven’t looked at

and i’m going to do what we call the

depression questionnaire

to evaluate the state of your mind and

we did it and of course she did have

symptoms of depression

and which is obvious because when you’re

in pain for a long time

you will be depressed but what i wanted

to find out if that pain was also

related to why your symptoms would go

away

so i went here and i said now i’m gonna

try and refer you to a mental health

professional

and she gave me what i call the nigerian

answer she said

god forbid it’s not in my family no no

no

don’t don’t even say it i’m gonna leave

you i won’t come to you again no no no

this is wrong in my mind

and i used my sweet nature to engage her

a little bit more

and eventually she did agree to see a

mental health professional

and we started in therapy started some

medication and let me tell you

her pain went away it literally went

away

and she was so glad and this is what we

call self-stigma she had prejudice

against her own symptoms and struggle

that limited her recovery

of this pain for so many years

another example can relate to a lot of

women in the society

and cuts across all cultures and all

society and all

other societies and that is infertility

infertility is one of those things that

affects about

10 15 of couples but somehow in this

society i see it more often

so i’m not really sure if it’s true

infertility or the result or products

of external pressures sometimes i see

one walking to see me and say just check

me out

so i can know if i’m good before i even

get married to make sure i can have a

baby

that’s the beginning of stress sometimes

you get married and one month later

you’re in the office and saying

i haven’t got pregnant in one month i

want you to do something for me

that’s another stressor why because our

society places a lot of pressure

on having to conceive after you get

married

and so i had a young patient of mine

very young in her early 20s come to see

me because she

married those who were like three four

years and having yeah

there was a lot of family pressure you

know when you get married and because

everyone is here

that attends wednesday when you go for a

while the main prayer will be

you will conceive twins not every single

time

so every month every day after that they

look at you when they meet you are you

pregnant

are you somebody in there that is what

we feel that will be

exerted impression so she came and met

me and said look at very much

ibfs ibm is a process of trying to get

pregnant

and it hasn’t worked i am depressed and

i don’t think

i can cope with doing another one but i

know i have to

because it’s not working any other way

i’m struggling

i’m really depressed so when i went

through with records i said

again i brought up my very favorite

questionnaire the depression

questionnaire

and we did it i mean it was obvious that

she was depressed she couldn’t quote

ibm or infertility is a significant

emotional journey

ask anybody who has gone through trying

to get pregnant

and they will tell you that every time

they see their

period in a month they cry they

literally weak

all right so when i did this survey she

was clearly surprised and i asked her i

said

while we go through this process would

you like to meet somebody and have

therapy counseling so you can share your

views she said i’ve always wanted to but

my husband

and his people do not want me to share

anything i don’t believe

in depression and all these things and

that’s why i

took them all out and i can’t share it

with anybody

that is an example of external stigma

public stigma

and it’s worse when people close to you

stigmatize your mood you know why

because isolates you

you end up feeling like there’s so many

people around you

but you’re alone and when that happens

it’s dangerous you know why this can

lead to

suicide that’s when you hear about them

taking a sniper

or jumping off the third main language

because they just felt

i can’t cope anymore there’s nobody to

talk to

she went on got the count i went to meet

her i said bring your husband in we’re

going to have a meeting here

i’m going to prescribe something

straight from the doctor you know an

idea when the doctor says something

they can’t follow it so i said i want to

prescribe something from the doctor that

would help this situation

and when he sat down i told her you know

what let’s take a three-month break from

trying to conceive

you deserve a break let’s just just try

to spend three months

and go through counseling during that

three months

of course i’m sure you know what

happened she can see naturally

that shows you the psychological impact

infertility

occurs with infertility and the pressure

that young ladies like you suffer

even before you get married so i was

very pleased with that and

and so you can see from these examples

what stigma really does it limits and

inhibits

your path to full recovery

what what is stigma i’ve used the word

what is stigma

in my opinion i define stigma as

a mark of disgrace set upon somebody

that sets them apart right

and this builds up or leads to negative

attitudes and beliefs

people start looking at you as you know

as prepared you as your disease

and do not see you anymore as an

individual

that stigma now if you think of your

emotions

when you think you feel

thoughts generate emotions if i tell you

to think of something very

happy you feel happy if i tell you to

think of something really sad like when

you lost a loved one

you will feel very sad

without your thoughts you can’t really

feel emotions

and so depression is the most times

negative thoughts

that ellis really deep emotions or sad

emotions

that some of us can cope with some of us

are really good in nigeria

we have developed coping mechanisms that

are so popular like humor

i mean you’re going through a common

pandemic and sars protests

people are literally dying but there’s a

what’s up picture that comes in and you

have to laugh

yeah we deal with humor also religion

right we use worship the normal

diversity we can

relieve or move three socializing

we love to party we love together

covet protocol was not stopping us to

meet together and

party because that helps our mood

but again there are people that can cope

and i’m saying that because i see a lot

of women

who come to me that cannot sleep without

sleeping tablets

like dice japan and lecture time they

sell more

next time here than a cell top part of

the panel as far as i’m concerned

everybody seems to be on sleeping

tablets insomnia

is the sign that you’re not coping with

the way you feel

you can’t sleep your mind to school or

you sleep for hours and still get up

tired

that is a sign that you’re not coping

very well but because of stigma

so nobody says anything you will not

seek out help

you know and i say to them when i’m in

the us can sit down someone says oh i

saw my psychologist yesterday like

never can say that in nigeria because

you’ve been blocked put aside you saw

your psychologist pretty much put this

wrong what’s wrong with it

trying to repeat it but it didn’t work

you know so so that’s

that’s what we see in terms of stigma

why do you think

sigma is so prevalent in our society

i’ll give you two reasons that i think

of that one is culture

culture has taught us not to express

our mood to be silent and many times i

meet women who are going through really

bad situations

and i said be spoken to anybody i said

no i did to my pastors that have faith

i spoke to my parents you know just hold

yourself

hold yourself and they’re there

crumbling

in emotional pain when you’re going to

get married they’re going to investigate

the other family to see if someone says

yes this person has seen a

mental health expert like leave that

family

find another family right that’s our

culture

that’s our culture another one is

religion people

think if you’re a person of faith you

cannot be depressed

that’s a policy because the same way you

can have high blood pressure

or diabetes is the same way you can have

mental health

condition it’s part of your body mental

health

physical health social health emotional

health

is all part of you actually being well

so

don’t think there’s any different the

same imbalances in your body that make

us treat you to get better is the same

imbalance in your mind

that will treat you to get better all is

wellness

so that being said i i wanted to say

i want to share my story a little bit

because one of the things i’ve seen

is that emotional pain is worse than

physical pain in my opinion

physical pain you can take panadol or

pain medications right

and it gets better with the pain on

emotional pain you need to

work through it it’s a process to get

through it

to talk to yourself to say things to

yourself it’s a process

my experience emotional pain was in 2017

when i lost my mother to cancer

she was my best friend my angel on earth

my beginning and you see her listen to

me

and she passed away from cancer and it

threw me into a place

of grief that i’ve never known before

emotional pain paralyzed me affected my

work my

creativity affecting my relationships

with people

because it does affect relationships

when you’re always in pain people don’t

understand it

and i remember in nigeria after the

funeral going through the months of

grief

i would talk to somebody and they’ll say

don’t worry she’s in a better place

you’ll be fine and you know that really

hurt me when they said that because

that’s not what i really wanted to hear

so i stopped talking about it you know

because

what they were saying made me feel worse

when i went to the stakes as you can see

i practice actually the two continents

when i went to the u.s and i told a

friend of mine i said we’re going to get

you through that don’t worry we’d like

you to do that

and we went through and i have my

friends down by me there in the u.s and

i’ve gone through grief if not i’m sure

i would have ended up clinically

depressed

so how do we break the stigma one

let’s speak up like i’m doing right now

less on

every platform let’s tell people that

mental health condition

is pretty much the same as any physical

condition and we shouldn’t stop people

from speaking up about

that the more you know about mental

health awareness

the less stigma you can attach this with

two

let’s share the story i’ve stood here as

vulnerable as i can be to share your

share my stories

let’s share our stories and you know

that people can everybody can suffer

this crisis three

let’s refrain the way we think if you’re

struggling with depression

depression does not identify who you are

and fourth let’s change our vocabulary

stigma power lies in our words you

sit down and say that person is crazy

that person is not well

that person is out his head is not

correct someone decided you could be

struggling

then i ain’t just looking for help and

you say that and that changes the

person’s course

not to speak up and to suffer an

emotional pain

so i look forward to the day we see

parity

in treating mental health and physical

health

the same way because it will save

lives i will leave you with this

powerful quote

from val rankin who is a wellness mental

wellness advocate in a sense do not give

into stigma

your diagnosis does not determine who

you

are or what you can do thank you