Immersing myself in nature around Johannesburg boosts my mental and physical wellbeing.
Midway through my second year at Wits I was struggling with mental health issues. It became difficult to set goals, meet deadlines, and to attend crucial lectures. This caused my academic work to suffer, and my marks to drop. I also lost interest in things that I had once loved.
As overwhelming and isolating as my depression felt, it is not an uncommon occurrence. According to a 2022 paper by the Wits/Medical Research Council developmental pathways for health research unit (DPHRU), just over one-quarter of South Africans have probable depression. This fluctuates from province to province – with the highest rates in the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Gauteng and Mpumalanga.
One day, my friends called me to come on a walk with them. Not really understanding why people would walk for fun, I hesitantly went along.
Important to note is that, at the time, I was not able to see much good about what was around me. My mindset was extremely negative towards Joburg – the bad clouded the good.
We drove to a hill near Bedfordview, Ekurhuleni, to get an unobstructed view of the city. I remember sitting on a rock watching the sun set over Joburg. I was in awe of the City of Gold. We sat there well into the evening – chatting, listening to music, and most importantly, enjoying the view of the city.
The Sandton skyline glows in the sunset from the viewpoint of Harvey’s Nature Reserve on Linksfield Ridge. Photo: Seth Thorne
I wanted to do this more often. I wanted to see more of this beautiful city again. I remembered it being beautiful when I was a kid. What I am generally told now is that Joburg is a bad city, so everything about it must be bad… right?
I realised that I had lived in the city for my entire life but had not really seen Joburg.
I decided to set time aside to go on walks and hikes to see Jozi from different perspectives with my friends. It was a big decision because it meant I had to cut into my Netflix time. However, it changed my life forever.
The more I went out to see the city with my friends, the happier I found myself. From watching the sun set on Northcliff Hill, The Wilds in Houghton, and Harvey’s Nature Reserve on Linksfield Ridge, to spending a Saturday at the Neighbourgoods Market in Braamfontein. Seeing Joburg made me mentally and physically healthier. Taking care of your own well-being is known as “personal counselling”. This refers to nurturing one’s own mental health by making use of self-help resources and activities that a person would enjoy.
Techniques can also be learnt, with the Wits Careers Counselling and Development Unit offering some suggestions, which can be accessed by clicking here.
Walks around the city have made me more optimistic about Joburg, and life in general. It is an unbelievably diverse, complex, and misunderstood city that radiates a lot of beauty – if you allow yourself to see it. I also became enthusiastic about university, and my academic performance improved as a result. My suggestion to everyone is to go out and experience the beauty of the world around you. It just may change your life.
The ban on cigarettes has simultaneously baffled my mind and put it in distress, and the evil last minute snatching away of the lift of the ban has completely torn my mind to shreds. (more…)
The seriousness of mental illnesses is often overlooked, this weeks Slice of life looks at depression and mental illnesses and what it is like living with a mental illness.
DOWN IN THE DUMPS: Depression is characterized as living in a black hole or having a feeling of doom. PHOTO: Kudzai Mazvarirwofa
WHEN I was eight, I was sent home from school because they did not understand why I was “acting out”.
I suffered from depression. But my family kept sending me back to school as they were convinced I was “seeking attention”.
I am not alone in my experience. Many other students have dealt with depression on their own because it is not regarded as an “African” illness. So, it is not easily recognised.
In Xhosa, Ndebele, Shona, Pedi, Tsonga and Venda cultures, there is no term for depression, only terms that describe their actions on the exterior. These terms include ukhatazekile (isiZulu for hurt/ worried/ broken-hearted); hatello yamunagano (Sesotho for oppression of the mind/mind is weighed down) and kufungisisa (Shona for overthinking).
“Usually those who have depression suffer from ancestral problems … I give them a mixture made of plants that we boil for 30 minutes.” Serake said.
Depression and mental disorders such as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Autism and Anxiety are viewed as a “luxury” for those who can afford to get them treated. These diseases are seen as a form of “indulgence” for attention-seekers.
Depression is characterised by the Health Guide.org as “living in a black hole” or having a feeling of impending doom or bleakness. However, some depressed people don’t feel sad a
t all, they may feel lifeless, empty, and disengaged. Men, in particular, may even feel angry, aggressive, and restless. Depression makes it tough to function because day to day “normal” activities become a chore and difficult to undertake.
Common symptoms of depression include headaches, emotional outbursts, acute sadness, isolation, self-loathing, weakness and stomach pains, to name but a few.
Trish Chikura, a University of North-West student, said that before she was diagnosed with Dysthymia, which is a neurotic depression, she had been living with it for over six years. She became aware of it initially when she was 15. “Deep inside, I was empty and had recurring anxiety attacks. I grew up in an unstable household. I saw things as a child that no child should see,” Chikura said.
She said her family, despite being the “catalyst of her depression”, didn’t take too well to her being depressed.
“They are still in denial. Some part of me thinks they don’t see depression as a big thing.”
Depression is not always caused by one isolated incident. While the root cause of depression varies, most cases are usually triggered by a major incident that the patient may have witnessed or suffered.Twenty-two year-old Braamfontein resident Dimitri Leroy Tshabalala suffered from depression when his mother, who was his support system, died.
He realised he was depressed when he suffered from constant headaches, weakness and feelings of loneliness and self-loathing. He became suicidal.
“Now that she was gone, I was at the point I tried to end my life on many occasions but failed,” he said.
Tshabalala said his family was unresponsive to the fact that he was depressed, and his friends acted as his support system.
Because mental illness is an unexplainable phenomenon in African cultures, it has proved difficult for many to get the help they need.
The fact that these diseases are identified with their physical or exterior symptoms makes it more difficult to deal with the root cause.
Wits Vuvuzela spoke to Seth Serake, a Johannesburg based traditional healer, who treats patients suffering from depression. For him, depression was caused by “ancestral problems”. He prepared an oral concoction which would get rid of the depression in two weeks, he claimed.
“Usually those who have depression suffer from ancestral problems … I give them a mixture made of plants that we boil for 30 minutes. They must take one tablespoon three times a day for two weeks. Guarantee in one month the depression is out of the body,” Serake said.
The fact that the concept of depression is clearly not fully comprehended adds to the difficulty in recognising it in its early stages.
Dr Vinitha Jithoo, of the Wits Psychology department, said that the issue of understanding depression in African contexts is not so much about people’s ignorance of the disease but more about the lack of a direct linguistic connection to the disease itself.
They identify depression differently, she said. “This is done by connecting the physical symptoms such as headaches, stomach aches, to the disease but not the mental symptoms,” Jithoo said.
The treatment for depression can be found in acknowledgement of the depression, therapy and sometimes antidepressants, according to MayoClinic.org. These procedures take some time as it also requires lifestyle changes such as exercise, better nutrition, reduction of stress and more sleep.
Wits Vuvuzela approached different people of different ethnic backgrounds and asked them what they thought depression was.
Most of them connected depression to over-thinking, stress, worry and just basic “not feeling well”. Some even went as far as saying that “it does not exist” and when Wits Vuvuzela explained the symptoms they called it “attention-seeking” or “laziness”.
It is important to identify depression in its early stages for it can lead to self-harm and suicide.
In my own experience the most important thing is to get acknowledgement that the disease exists. The hardest part is managing it. It has got easier with time, however.
Wits Vuvuzela journalist Hazel Meda addresses the issue of depression and somatoform disorder in her first feature.
Somatoform disorder can be very debilitating, says psychiatrist Werdie van Staden. Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Thembi* slammed her fist onto her friend’s kitchen counter.
“I am not depressed! I’m sick!” she shouted.
She pointed at the small yellow packet of pills which lay next to Hlengiwe’s laptop.
“He didn’t even spend five minutes with me and he’s giving me anti-depressants,” she said, her voice dripping with contempt.
She was fuming, because she had searched for the name “amitryptiline” on Google and discovered that the pills Dr Jones had given her were in fact a powerful anti-depressant.
Thembi had always avoided consulting the doctor, because she thought he was useless. But he had been the doctor on call at the surgery in Mbabane that Saturday afternoon when she felt so dizzy she thought she’d die.
Thembi may have doubted the doctor’s competence back then, but today she is grateful to him for setting in motion the process that would eventually get her the help she had been seeking for almost a year.
Thembi had never heard of somatoform disorder, but she was relieved to know that what she’d been feeling actually had a name. She wasn’t crazy and she hadn’t been making it all up to get attention.
A week later, Thembi was sitting in the office of Swaziland’s only psychiatrist, Dr Walter Mangezi. He handed her the green National Psychiatric Centre outpatient card which she had filled out an hour earlier.
“Major depression and somatoform disorder” he had scrawled.
Thembi had never heard of somatoform disorder, but she was relieved to know that what she’d been feeling actually had a name. She wasn’t crazy and she hadn’t been making it all up to get attention. She thanked Dr Mangezi for putting an end to her long and costly search for a diagnosis.
According to the psychiatrists’ bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, several conditions fall into the category of somatoform disorders. They include undifferentiated somatoform disorder, pain disorder, hypochondriasis and body dysmorphic disorder.
What they have in common is that patients complain of symptoms which don’t have a medical explanation, but which are also not intentionally made up. It is thought that these disorders are physical manifestations of emotional distress.
About 60% of patients who are seen in clinics are actually suffering from a somatoform disorder
Dr Werdie van Staden, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pretoria and the Editor in Chief of the South African Journal of Psychiatry, says he has treated many patients with somatoform disorders for about 20 years.
Van Staden says there is no reliable data on somatoform disorders in South Africa. He says it is difficult to determine the prevalence of these conditions, because patients often present to general practitioners rather than to psychiatrists and are often not diagnosed in these terms.
Dr Mangezi told Thembi that about 60% of patients who are seen in clinics are actually suffering from a somatoform disorder. A 2007 paper by Dr Kurt Kroeneke of the Indiana School of Medicine says 10 to 15% of patients seen in a primary care (general practitioner) setting in the United States have the condition. Kroeneke says the condition “leads to excessive healthcare use, costing the US healthcare system an estimated $100 billion annually”.
Thembi first went to her general practitioner complaining of severe pain in her left breast
Kerri Alexander, a psychologist at the Wits Counselling and Career Development Unit, says it takes a long time before patients eventually end up in the office of a mental health practitioner.
“Generally, clients will initially be seen at a hospital or health clinic, and are then usually referred for neurological tests etc.” Alexander says.
“Only once all of the possible medical conditions have been ruled out do they then think it might be psychological.”
Thembi incurred thousands of rands in unnecessary medical expenses as her doctors went through their process of elimination. She was lucky that her employer offered a very good medical aid scheme which paid most of her bills, but she still spent a lot of money out of pocket.
Thembi first went to her general practitioner complaining of severe pain in her left breast. When the pain persisted despite strong painkillers, he ordered a mammogram to rule out breast cancer.
She read about a deadly new type of breast cancer which occurred in young black women
At the time, the only mammogram machine in Swaziland was broken and Thembi had to travel to a specialist breast care clinic in South Africa. The mammogram was clear, but Thembi was still worried. While visiting relatives in Texas, she read about a deadly new type of breast cancer which occurred in young black women and which couldn’t be detected easily by mammograms because it occurred in sheets, rather than lumps. She insisted on another mammogram, which she paid for out of pocket. Again, the radiologist found nothing.
Back in Swaziland, Thembi visited her doctor repeatedly to discuss the breast pain and the other symptoms she had developed – shooting pain in her legs and arms, a foggy brain, slow thinking, serious forgetfulness, dizziness which prevented her from driving, and palpitations. The doctors ordered a CAT scan, which came back clear. Thembi didn’t know whether to be happy or sad.
Besides trying to cope with the symptoms, she also had to try to hide her problems from her employer, since she was afraid of losing her job.
According to the DSM, for undifferentiated somatoform disorder to be diagnosed, “the symptoms must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning”.
Van Staden says the disorder varies in severity, but that it can be “very debilitating in all aspects of daily functioning.”
She felt she was dying and nobody could help her
Thembi struggled to getthrough her work day. She was so dizzy that she couldn’t stand and had to teach her English classes while sitting on top of the desk and leaning against the blackboard. She felt exhausted and groggy all the time. She couldn’t remember the students’ names and made spelling mistakes on the board, something she had never done before.
She monitored her symptoms obsessively. She felt she was dying and nobody could help her. Her persistent symptoms, her doctors’ failure to find a solution and her inability to do her work drove her into depression.
Somatoform disorder seems to be associated with anxiety and depression, but researchers Roselind Lieb, Gunther Meinlschmidt and Ricardo Araya say no one can tell whether the disorder causes depression or vice versa.
Somatoform disorder is often treated with anti-depressants. Pic: Wikimedia Commons
Perhaps because of this link, anti-depressants are often used in the treatment of somatoform disorder.
According to Van Staden, there is no medicine that works specifically for somatoform disorders, although some medicines show promise for the treatment of body dysmorphic disorder and pain disorder. However, he says anxiety and depression generally respond well to medication.
“Treatment of these concomitant conditions often helps and even cures the somatoform symptoms,” he says.
Amitryptiline worsened the switched-off, foggy-brain feeling Thembi had and Dr Mangezi put her on another drug in the same family, fluoxetine, commonly known as Prozac.
He also advised her to see a psychologist.
Alexander says talk therapies “may help in getting the client to express the emotional pain and in this way relieve the physically displaced pain”.
Thembi isn’t sure that the talk therapy helped her, because she didn’t discuss much with the psychologist.
“She just used to ask me how I was feeling that week and encourage me to persevere with the medication even though I wasn’t seeing results quickly.”
After a few months on the medication, Thembi realised one day that she no longer had the breast pain or the shooting pains in her limbs. Her mind felt clearer and she was no longer felt so dizzy. Her palpitations had stopped and she was no longer anxious about her health. Maybe she wouldn’t die after all.
*The names of the patient, her friend and her general practitioner have been changed to protect their identities.
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