By CHRISTABEL CHIWILA –
ZAMBIA Medical Association (ZMA) says there was need to promote debate on mental health illness in the country.
ZMA chairperson Dalal Naeem said the only way to dispel myths surrounding mental health illnesses was to have discussions on the subject.
Dr Naeem cited stress resulting from relationships as a cause of mental illnesses because some people fail to continue living after a failed marriage.
Dr Naeem said this was known to be a chronic life stressor that could lead to acute stress disorder which goes away with time.
“People affected by this stress develop symptoms like clinical depression, anxiety disorder or in most cases self medicate themselves with substance such as drug and alcohol,” he said.
Dr Naeem who is a psychiatry register at the University of Zambia public health department said globally, most suicide statistics were related to failed relationship.
He however said in Zambia there were no statistics available to show the risk factors or number of suicide-related case resulting from failed relations.
“When people are overwhelmed with emotions they tend to act in a certain way, but when they do come back to their senses and fail to understand why they acted in the way they did at first, “he said.
