By Cosmas Omegoh

These are uncommon times. Things are hard and might get worse; and so many people cannot cope. So, they are going down with the times.

But a consultant and clinical psychologist, Dr Charles Umeh, has suggested the way out. His words of assurance stemmed from his long years of experience at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idia Araba, Lagos. 

He brings good tiding of hope for the future, enjoining everyone to make the best use of the bad times, saying “carve out what works for you in every situation,” adding: “Be happy.” Excerpts:

What’s your impression of the current Nigerian socio-economic situation?

Everybody in Nigeria is feeling the pangs of hardship at the moment. Call it man-made or natural – but I don’t think it’s natural. It is more of a man-made situation. Now, look at this. The cost of living in Nigeria now is going haywire; and there seems to be no hope, no vision for the future. Now, when people start feeling this in the manner they are doing, they start coming down with emotional stress especially depression. If some look into the future and there doesn’t seem to be any hope for a better situation – and some of these things are not within their control, they give up. They become hopeless, and don’t forget that hopelessness begets worthlessness. And if you are caught in this cyclical state of hopelessness, worthlessness and then sadness – perpetual sadness – then what is next? Of course, for some people, sadness follows and then suicide.  Some of the aforementioned situations might be playing out everywhere around us. But, of course, they might always not be publicised

Now the truth is that a lot of people cannot eke out a living any more. It might not be out of place to see some people dying by committing suicide because of what they are experiencing. 

How are hard times affecting wellbeing?

When we talk about wellbeing, it is not a one-factor situation. A lot of factors play a role in accounting for how people feel and fare. There is the economic status, lifestyle activities, the food we eat – all play key roles in our wellbeing. But let us look at things this way. The emotional well-being of the individual is largely influenced by the ability of the same individual to deal with everyday issues affecting them. In reality, every human being is alive to solve problems. But how well we solve our problems determines how happy we become. Now the reality before us is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for a lot more people to solve their own problems. And what does that lead to – frustration. When one is frustrated, anger sets in; that accounts for the aggressive behaviour we see on a daily basis. Every individual is seeking for happiness in one way or the other. But many are not getting it apparently because of the avalanche of problems they have, and what do they do? Some might begin to seek a way out. So they go for artificial ways of solving their problems – they go into drugs. When they go into drugs to solve a problem, that problem might never go away. It only offers a temporary reprieve. Thereafter, the same problem returns to stare them in the face.  That is why we say that most of the drugs people use are psycho-active. They are psychoactive in the sense that they are capable of influencing or affecting what they do, how they feel and how they act.

How do feelings affect health?

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Emotion can affect many things; it can also lead to other health issues or various disorders in humans. There is a category of disorders we call somatoform disorders. These are classes of conditions that have been found to affect the physical functioning of an individual without organic involvement. That is, all the functions of the body are okay, yet the individual is sick. But where is the sickness coming from? So, we say the problem is psychogenic in origin. So, to explain this, we need to go a long way in doing that. Now, looking at the origin of medicine, it was found out that when the body malfunctions, you administer some drugs and the functions return. That is called biomedical approach to medicine; that is how medicine works. But with time, it was found out that there are other problems that cause illnesses that people have; these are psychological and social factors. We recall that the WHO definition of health, is not just the absence of diseases and infirmities, but also the psychological and social wellbeing.  These are issues whose direct impact on health we don’t easily see. People seem to play them down. But when they come to us, we find out that there are many non-medical problems that afflict their wellbeing.  In the country right now, people are stressed. The level of stress they go through is capable of affecting their health and wellbeing.  

Why do we have stress in Nigeria?

The truth is that the situation in Nigeria is making things extremely difficult for a lot of people. If, for instance, you cannot afford what you want, or your basic needs for survival, you start thinking. Some people might have problems that are too challenging. Take, for instance, the high cost of living. But over time, this might make their matters worse. Take hypertension, for instance. Stressors can readily contribute to hypertension or make it worse. Everybody in this country is operating under a very high level of stress. And the stressors are: one, you look for food and cannot get; you don’t know where to get the next meal. The very little resource you have cannot get you anything in the market. You go on Lagos roads you don’t get to your destination on time. Your landlord is asking for his rent, but you have not saved enough to pay. All these things act on the individual and piles pressure on them. They are capable of increasing already existing health conditions and even creating new ones.

How can these challenges be managed?

Talking about stress management, there are various individuals’ perception of stressors. Ironically, what one might consider a stress might not be stressful to another, likewise how to cope with it. Here, what is important is carving out what works for you under any given situation you find yourself because the interpretation we give to any situation determines the kind of response offer to it. That does not mean that under this difficult economic condition some people are not striving. They are. But what I don’t know is whether in a dubious or straight forward way. But if you are doing it in straight forward way, what that means is that you have the savvy to manage your resources in these difficult times.  Most people are able to do that; that means they are cutting their cloths according to their sizes; they are learning to adapt to difficult situations. Now, consider this. Some people are already used to living big and cannot think about managing the times they are in. On the other hand, some people have learnt how to come down from their high horses to face the prevailing circumstances. So, it all boils down to something: people trying to help themselves.  

So, what is the way out?

In the light of the prevailing bad situations, there are certain things we can do for ourselves. First, identify what your stressors are. Break them down because we cannot be working blindly. Sometimes, we assume what our problems are not; so, we need to understand what our problems are, break them down and analyse them. What I tell people is ‘try to understand what the problems are.’ That is called primary appraisal. Next, understand the resources available to you to deal with the problems. If one is able to identify the problems and check out what the resources available to deal with them, the next thing is to return to the list of the problems generated and then ask: ‘how much of the problem will I be able to solve?’ Then deploy resources. Now, for every level of problem you solve, there is a certain level of happiness attained because there is greater joy in accomplishment. 

Now note that even in the face of the most difficult problems, one can still be happy in dealing with them to the best of their ability. If one has N1, for instance, but has N10 need, will the N1 be able to accommodate their need? The answer is no. But when you break the problems down, you will be able to see what that N1 can do. And once you achieve that success, there is an uplift and motivation that come with it. Then in the process of doing that, other opportunities might open for one to move to the other higher level of need. But if one wants to solve all their needs at the same time, they will be overwhelmed and consequently break down.

What is your advice for the time?

The problem with the time is not really the time, but how we interpret the time. Do we see the time as a very bad situation? Do we see the difficulties as challenges? I advise people to see difficulties as challenges because the way we interpret them will either make us either capitulate or rise up to fight. If you see a problem as a challenge, what do you do to the challenge? You fight so that you don’t capitulate. You simply rise and fight. Fighting back means looking at the resources you have, motivating yourself, telling yourself ‘I will use the resources I have to fight back.’ That will surely give you the impetus to soldier on.