By CHILA NAMAIKO-
A CHOMA resident who was successfully treated for schizophrenia has urged other patients with mental problems to always seek treatment from hospitals and avoid fake prophets.
Schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour.
It leads to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental breakup.
Giving a testimony at Sibanyati clinic during World Mental Health Day on Friday, whose theme was ‘Living with Schizophrenia’, Sten Mwiinga suffered from mental problems for the past five-years but has been treated after undergoing treatment at the hospital.
Mr Mwiinga used to fail to sleep, was quiet most times, as he used to think a lot, coupled with financial constraints, a situation which exacerbated his problem.
“At the same time, I had no money to sponsor my children to school, my mental problem worsened, until I was taken to the hospital where I was put on treatment and today I am very fine,” he said.
He said after treatment, he was now able to do things on his own such as driving and studying properly.  He  said seeking treatment from fake prophets was a waste of resources.
Choma District medical office planner Sikaona Chitunga said schizophrenia affected about 26 million people globally, adding that more than 50 per cent of people suffering from the disorder could not access
adequate treatment, while 90 per cent with untreated schizophrenia lived in developing countries.
He said that the disorder  was treatable through long-term medication, hence the need for patients to always seek treatment from health centres.
Early treatment of was a determinant of quick recovery and that most mental health problems were curable and controllable as long as patients adhered to medication.
District Commissioner Bernadette Hamweemba said World Health Mental Day was important in promoting education, awareness and advocacy about mental problems.
In a speech read for her by district administrative officer Vincent Sikanyela, Ms Hamweemba called for more sensitisation in communities to reduce the burden of the disease.
“Let’s not waste our monies on taking the patients to traditional doctors or prophets, the treatment of mental illness is free at all Government hospitals,” she said.