Is our future ‘dying’ inside?

Leroy Dzenga Features Writer
Naison Msindo (not his real name) started feeling tired and disinterested when he was in his fourth year at one of the country`s university.

At first he thought it was just fatigue as he had begun work on his research dissertation.

Over time, he realized something was occupying space in his mind, affecting his well-being.

The tragedy was that he could not put a finger on the source of the weight on his mind, the people he reached out to could not help him.

“I tried to tell my friends that something was wrong with me mentally, although they sympathized with me they failed to connect with what I was going through,” he said.

Every time he let out a cry for help, it was met with programmed social responses which have been crafted over time to pacify concerns of mental nature.

“They kept telling me that everything was going to be fine. I wanted things to be fine too but those words ceased to have meaning. I started feeling like an inconvenience to them,” said Msindo.

He sank deeper into a dark space, started losing grip on his academic work.

“I used to score high marks in class and in tests but I lost interest. I felt there was no need to work to secure a future that looked bleak. I did not want to be in that future,” he said.

“All I wanted was sleep and to be left alone. I tried taking my life twice in a period of four months but luckily there were people around me who managed to see me before things turned bad,” he said.

His family on the other hand, believed his stress was merely overthinking and a conversation with their pastor would help him overcome the mental health challenges he was facing.

“My parents never really understood how a person my age could be depressed. In their mind, I was stressed and talking to people, specifically the pastor would help my situation. But when I went to the pastor, he sound like he was reading from a script and I was unable to relate to him,” he said.

As the toll on Msindo continued, he says he began having memory loss and episodes where he could not control his actions as well as speech.

This is when he sought medical help and has been undergoing therapy since.

There are many like Msindo who have been facing mental health challenges in tertiary institutions.

Recently, there have been reports of promising students who have succumbed to suicide.

But what are the possible causes of this phase of poor mental health at the country`s tertiary institutions?

A few months ago the Zimbabwe Medical Students Association (ZIMSA) hosted a seminar on mental health, where elaborate conversations on problems were unpacked.

Phil Chigiya, the immediate past president of ZIMSA, said they held a seminar on mental health day where they collected perspective among medical students in the country.

“The thing we saw was that the pressure in college causes significant stress and psychiatric morbidity in that section of the university,” Chigiya said.

Depression has been long swept under the carpet and this has been noted as a worsening factor to the students` state of mind.

“Another key finding was that many do not know that they are actually sick and also they do not know who to talk to or where to get help,” said Chigiya.

A mental health practitioner for more than 14 years, Dr Sacrifice Chirisa said mental health challenges are not unique to university students.

“Mental disorders happen at all stages of life. However, the college years are a transitional period associated with situations one encounters for the first time and on their own without the input of parents or guardians,” said Dr Chirisa.

The new found freedom associated with university life sometimes spurs young people into an unfamiliar mental space.

“Some who leave home for the first time, there is a level of sudden freedom which can cause one to lose their way and expose them to mental disorder,” explained Dr Chirisa.

Reading for a tertiary qualification has pressures which may too much for some.

“There is also high demand academically, with a different teaching style to that enjoyed in A-level which has elements of spoon-feeding,” Dr Chirisa said.

 He Chirisa added; “The mental conditions range from minor to major conditions. Anxiety and depression are common among both sexes. This can be complicated by suicide, attempted and completed ones.”

Other conditions can also express themselves for the first time during that age, like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Sometimes the challenges are not directly related to the university space but lifestyle changes associated with a transition from adolescence to early adulthood.

“One trend I have seen is the increase in substance use disorders (drugs) from excessive use of cannabis, alcohol and experimenting on harder drugs like crystal meth, heroine, broncho and cocaine,” Dr Chirisa said.

To solve the challenge which has emerged in our academic system, or whose conversations have become more elaborate owing to recent events, a dynamic approach needs to be adopted.

Dr Chirisa warned that the solution is not one dimensional.

“Parents need to monitor their children a bit more and not just let them do what they want. Parents don’t have to overbear their children but a healthy level of accountability can help.

The colleges must introduce compulsory mental health courses to teach students to recognize symptoms early and show clear path ways of accessing help,” he said.

Suggestions have also been made to increase mental health awareness campaigns on campus so there is peer to peer monitoring among students to reduce mental health challenges.

Government said it was looking at ways to improve the mental wellbeing of students.

In a recent interview, Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira said his ministry was seized with the “worrying development.”

“This is a ministry of students and whatever affects students is our concern. Yes, there have been reports and we are working on trying to lessen cases of that nature,” Prof Murwira said.

Prof Murwira said they were aiming to improve the well-being of students in different colleges across the country and would look into the improvement of counselling systems at institutions.

“We are looking into urgently improving psychological support services at our institutions. At the University of Zimbabwe, Great Zimbabwe University and other institutions there are health clinics where students can get medical help.

“We also want to investigate and find out what could be the cause of these mental health issues which are leading to unfortunate occurrences. Once we understand what is leading to these cases, we can then offer a long-term solution,” Prof Murwira said.

However, Prof Murwira said in finding solutions people should forget about prospects of lessened academic pressure.

“University degrees are worked for and people have to invest their hard work. We need to find ways to ensure students cope with the amount of work involved in attaining a meaningful degree than to be expedient and hurting out students in the process,” Prof Murwira said.

According to a 2010 research paper by Lisa Langhaug and Sophie Pascoe, titled “High Prevalence of Affective Disorders among Adolescents Living in Rural Zimbabwe,” there is also a sexual imperative to mental health problems among the general tertiary student age.

The study said there was a relationship between risky sexual behaviour and psychological distress.

Conversations on mental health have been topical recently with nuanced discussions coming to the fore.

Youths appear to be encountering mental health challenges, which poses the question; “is our future dying inside?”

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