OVER bearing society ills, stress and poverty are said to be the major causes of mental illnesses in our society today, says Dr. Maigari Yusuf Taru, a Consultant of Psychiatry Department with the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH).
He stated this recently while delivering a lecture on the occasion marking World Mental Health Day held at the new Psychiatric Complex Lamingo, Jos-North Local Government Area of Plateau State where Medical Students came to celebrate the day.
The Consultant said, “the knowledge about the cause of mental illiness in our environment is quite scanty and not enough. People know nothing about it most especially, in the developing world like ours which we tend to attribute the causes cohesion to what we call supernatural causes.
“The over bearing societal ills, stress and poverty can also make an individual to break down and everybody can be at high risk of developing mental illness, because it is an illness that has to do with the brain. And we do have brain, so, everybody with brain is at the risk of developing mental illness.
“The causes of mental health are vast because it can come from the individual, the kind of person you are and how you are able to contain issues. We call it personality, that is, if somebody is prompt to worry about over trivial issues, a restless kind of person and a moody kind of person he or she can be at risks of developing mental issues or Mental disorder”, he highlighted.
Taru disclosed that it was for these reasons that the World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with other bodies in mental health fields came together and set aside the 10th of every October to commemorate World Mental Health Day right from 1992 to create awareness looking at the global burden for mental illnesses generally.
He, therefore called on people to check their children’s excesses and treat them decently because most mental health issues are caused by how careless we are and the treatment we give to people who are frustrated and poor in our society.
