One in five Nigerians, according to Dr. Edak Okwong, a neuropsychiatrist at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Calabar, have experienced depression, with women being twice as vulnerable.
In a Tuesday interview in Calabar with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Okwong provided the justification.
According to NAN, depression is a mood condition that results in a lingering feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It may be categorized as major depressive disorder or clinical depression.
It affects how a person thinks and behaves and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems.
Patients may also have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities and sometimes feel life is not worth living.
The Neuropsychiatrist said although many scientists had come up with possible reasons why women were more predisposed to depression, social issues were some of the major causes.
“In Nigeria, one out of every five persons has experienced depression and women are twice more affected; scientists say it may be as a result of hormonal changes or less neuro-transmitters such as serotonin in a woman’s brain.
“However, the social issues with women are there, such as less empowerment which makes them unable to settle some needs and sink into anxiety and depression.
“There is also the issue of domestic violence in which many women are victims and have this feeling of entrapment; this powerless situation makes women depressed,” she said.
Okwong claimed that depression has the power to interfere with a person’s sleep by causing them to oversleep or sleep poorly, eat frenziedly, and put on weight.
She said that it had an impact on the patient’s focus, which in turn had an impact on his or her performance and, most crucially, had a negative mental impact, such as making the patient think, “I am worthless”.
She claims that as soon as a patient reaches a point of hopelessness, suicide becomes their only remaining option until someone steps in to save them.
The doctor went on to say that although depression was a legitimate mental health disease, those who experienced it shouldn’t feel ashamed to ask for help because it could be managed.