Psychologists worry over rising rate of suicide in Nigeria

Motolani Oseni

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lysi regimen Global Limited, Adebukola Ayelabola, has expressed concern at the rate in which people have continued to commit suicide in Nigeria, explaining the need to curtail the ugly incident especially amongst the youth.

Ayebola said that it was in response to the unwholesome act that she launched a rescue centre to arrest the rampant suicide occurrence in the country occasioned by depression and stigmatization.

Speaking to newsmen on Monday, Ayelabola, a certified therapist and member of the American Board of Hypnotherapy (ABNLP), noted that mental or mind pain is considered less dramatic and of lesser importance when compared to physical pain.

According to her, in reality, mind pain is more common and a much harder reality to bear.

“As a general rule, it is difficult to talk about one’s challenges: emotional, psychological and social wise, as people either do not understand or pretend not to understand these peculiar areas of challenges.

“Suffice to say that whole mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood to adolescence and through adulthood.

“I come from a part of the world where a considerable measure of stigmatization has been attached to mental illness and not just these, any protracted form of physical illness.

“Lysi Regimen is a culmination of my life’s journey. But most specifically two (2) major life-defining experiences have pushed me into the pursuit of this dream,” the psychologist explained.

While narrating her experience and how her family lost her younger brother as a result of jaundice and the stigmatisation the family has gone through, she said that the rescue centre was one of the products of her experiences.

She said:” Rescue Centre came to me in a dream. I woke up with three words deeply impressed into my consciousness: Rescue, Respite and Resuscitate.

“With this, I can confidently say that my focus is to see an emotionally and behaviourally healthy world of people living and functioning optimally for individual and communal productivity and progress through the use People, Process and Technology.

“Last year during a conference I received a positive word of assurance which encouraged me to pursue relentlessly the opening of Lysi Regimen’s Rescue Center.”

Also speaking, a psychology lecturer in the Department of Psychology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, Dr. Michael Okpala, said that unemployment, job loss and high cost of living could be some of the socio-economic factors that could result in suicide.

Dr. Okpala, who represented the National President of Nigeria Psychological Association, Prof. Michael Ezenwa, explained that culture, social and economic reasons could cause one to commit suicide.

He said, “We are looking at the interpretation of events, how people interpret events.

When you look at the interpretation, you will know that people’s belief system plays a role because if I perceive a problem being insurmountable it means I have resolved that I am defeated by the problem which now limits me to start seeking for solution.

“The pressure people are taking going by what is going around them could be too much, perhaps that explains the reason why their resources to cope is overwhelmed.

“Notwithstanding, we have facilities around that could be of help, inability to access these facilities could also be a reason people are taking their lives because when you disclose that you are having a problem then people will know how to help you.

“Another point is that the general population could be that they are not even aware signals of who is about to commit suicide in order to know how to help such person.”