Let’s keep our mental health a priority

At the post office, a few weeks back, a woman beside me expressed suicidal thoughts.

I was expecting the barrage of “God forbid!”, “It’s not your portion in Jesus’ name!”, “Don’t repeat that again!”, that are our Nigerian trademark responses to anyone expressing negativity around us.

But what followed was silence.

Which made me wonder – was this silence a tacit agreement with her thoughts?

Are the others feeling just like her – could she have been speaking the thoughts on their mind as well?

With all the negative news in the general space, it definitely feels like there’s a cloud of hopelessness above us. And this is not helped by all the polarizing conversations that happen on social media that create so much strife and divisiveness, causing many to lose hope in humanity.

Many observe these trends and are trying to fight the feelings of despondence creeping in. Many would rather they are ignored. I don’t think there’s value in doing that.

I find that as humans, we overestimate our capabilities to process negativity, and we put a strain on our mental health in the process. There’s only so much negativity one can take in before they snap. Don’t put yourself under that pressure.

If you are finding that you are more unhappy than happy these days, that you are becoming more familiar with thoughts of anxiety, depression, unease, anger than their opposite emotions, it’s time to pause and take a check. Tell yourself some hard truths today. You need a break, from some social media platforms, from some social groups, from some news streams that feed feelings of hopelessness and pessimism. Make the right decision for your mental health today.

It’s the era of taking care of our health. The mantra is ‘wear a mask and wash your hands’ to preserve your physical health, let’s also adopt the ‘take a break and stop feeding negative thoughts’ mantra for our mental health. Please stay safe out there. Love and hugs to everyone.