Depression is a feeling of low mood that causes mental and behavioral changes. It is a way of our bodies reacting to some life events e.g When you lose your job or a loved one. On the other hand, anxiety is the feeling of fear or nervousness. It is a response that your body gives when it feels threatened e.g When you come across a dangerous wild animal.
These are challenges that most human beings have faced at some point in their life regardless of race. However, every culture around the world has its way of dealing with distress.
African therapy for depression and anxiety
In Africa, spirituality is what led man to find solutions to what is challenging him which includes depression. It is not a new thing in history, people may have just called it by a different name.
Some of the African ways to deal with depression are as follows;
1. The African social system
Africans are culturally known to be social people. Their structure is family, clan, society and at times tribe centered.
Social events like weddings, childbirth, child naming, and initiation ceremonies brought many people together. In those places, they socialized and learned a thing or two from each other.
With close monitoring from other members of society, it is easy to spot a depressed member and help him or her to get over it.
Across most African families, when a meal is served, everyone congregated to take it. People get to talk and share their life challenges.
Living a lonely life was not encouraged. It was not seen as a good thing.
2. Engaging in traditional activities
In conventional Africa, there were a lot of activities that kept people busy.
Modern-day psychologists advise people to take on a few workouts to repair their moods.
Exercises help you keep your mind focused. Furthermore, it gives you positive thinking to overcome the hopelessness and suicidal thoughts that affect a severely depressed person.
In Africa, those activities include traditional dances where people gathered to cheer and have fun. Cheering builds the participants' self-esteem giving them a sense of love and belonging.
Traditional games like Nuba (wrestling), hunting expeditions, Genna game (African hokey), Morabaraba game (African chess), Kgati (skipping game), and many more.
3. Consulting traditional healer
Traditional healers were medicine men who would pose as today's professional doctors. They used herbs from trees to heal their patients.
African traditional medicine is comprised of a well-rehearsed system of healing. It was made up of plants, animals, and mineral medicines. They were administered according to specific health conditions.
Medicine making |
The aim was to treat, diagnose and prevent ailment or maintain the well-being of a person. Distinct foods were also believed to bring healing or strengthen the body and mind. |
4. Spiritual consultation
At a time when a disaster befell man, he took it as a communication from the Creator. He then sought ways to reunite with the spiritual world.
The reunion was led by respectable people from the community, they were the spiritual leader. Anyone with a problem sought their help.
Spiritual leaders spoke with the divine, interceded on behalf of the community, and brought back the response from the spiritual world. They also warned people against approaching calamities.
Whatever they advised was considered to have come from the spiritual world. Sometimes the session was sealed with gifts, mainly animal or plant sacrifices.
5. Undertaking rituals
Rituals were mainly spiritual procedures. A person may result to meditation, a method that has been recently adopted by conscious Africans.
Meditation is simply self-realization in a relaxed mood. It calms the body and drains away negative thoughts and energies.
Another ritual is the Senegalese Ndeup rituals practiced by the Lebu people. They believed that grains and livestock have extraordinary healing powers that treat up to psychiatric disorders.
Traditional rituals |
As different communities used different techniques to deal with depression, they all had a similarity. It was a belief that they were going to be healed.
With those useful methods to deal with depression, you may use them but if symptoms persist, kindly seek professional assistance from a therapist.
In the comment section, you can as well tell what you suggest for victims of depression to do to defeat it. Help a friend today.
African Renaissance����
ReplyDeleteInsightful as always. Keep it up, brother.
DeleteInsightful as always. Keep it up, brother.
DeleteAse!
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