By Asiya Mohamed
Its early in the morning, I couldn’t sleep because my neighbor’s kid Abdi who is suffering from a relentless mental illness was crying all the night. He whines and whimpers endlessly, the only thing that separates our compound from that of our neighbor is the wind that gusts between our shared spaces.
It all started when he was eight years old. Abdi who is almost 17 years has been enduring this illness for far too long, ravaging his childhood innocence and waning the happiness of his parents.
For Abdi’s family, life has been difficult; he was always treated at a local dispensary that could not offer any help, forcing the family to keep the young boy at home. Left with few options the family called for a religious healer to read the Quran on the boy to help them know what was affecting their son.
And much to the expectation of the family, the healer said Abdi was possessed by jinn. It is the Jinn that are making the boy restless, it was affecting his mind, making him crazy, sometimes with rib cracking outbursts and seizures and other times attacking people physically.
The science of Jinn is too grey for most conventional health practioners to understand let alone cure, with jinns there are no straight treatments. It is the Jinn that transformed the bubbly young boy into a violent being truly possessed and prowled.
The once jovial boy is now tied to a post in the family compound, a heavy-duty chain and an old padlock is tethering him to what is now his constant companion of his life, “the post”. The chains and imprisonment are for his own good, his mother says.
The tears rolling down her reddish eyes say it all, she is worried because the traditional healer said the jinn is becoming strong. All the family meager earnings are spent on the traditional healer’s pocket.
“Right now, Abdi is getting stronger and older, the chain, the lock and the post can no longer hold him, and I don’t know what I will do!” His feeble mother says
Mental illness is defined as a condition which causes serious disorder in a person’s behavior or thinking. And this is something our society doesn’t address, and we always seem like a society shrouded with mysteries and a lot has to do with how we present ourselves, the Somali culture specifically.
Many Somalis suffer from mental illnesses and the significant stigma shrouding mental health issues prevents many Somalis from seeking treatment or assistance. Undiagnosed mental illness is very common among our community, and it’s a fact we all don’t want to accept.
In the Somali culture, concepts of mental health only include two views on mental illness: one is insane (waali) or one is sane. Our major belief in the causes of mental illness is predominately spiritual.
Somalis traditionally explain behavioral problems as an expected result of spiritual causes or possession by an evil spirit. Healing for these problems is provided by religious leaders or by traditional healers who treat the problem by reciting verses of the Quran to protect the person from evil spirits, or jin, just like Abdi’s case.
Social isolation affects the mentally ill more than it helps them. Many Somalis with mental illness are socially isolated. The mentally ill are generally chained or imprisoned, and they are seen as a shame, a curse or even a burden to their families.
While a person with mental illness may be ostracized from the community, stigma may be even more powerful. Whether the ostracism is created by the community due to anticipated negative responses, the social isolation creates a profound worsening of mental illness, self-harm, inflict pain on their family and worse of all, they can commit suicide.
With the Western medical view there is no room for religious or spiritual causes or treatments. Mind, body and spirit are perceived as separate medically. If you go to the doctor, a specialist doctor that is, most patients usually report physical symptoms separate from emotional symptoms.
In our Somali culture, the mind, body and spirit are traditionally seen as a whole and undivided. Consequently, we, Somalis are more likely to report physical pain when we are experiencing depression or sadness.
Moreover, because mental illness is not conceptualized as a physical phenomenon, these physical symptoms that are present are interpreted as relevant to emotional or psychological problems which are often expressed as headaches, chest pain, and forgetfulness; sleep problems, nightmares and sweating.
Mental health (caafimadka maskaxda) and how they are to be treated are still relatively new concepts among many Somalis. Depression, for example, has no direct translation in Af-Somali. Instead, it is described: ‘ qalbi-jab iyo murugo joogto ah’.
Seeking assistance from a resource outside the community for these types of problems is considered shameful. Mental illness is a sickness that has its roots everywhere, and the key to healing is taking away the shame associated with Mental illness.
There are hospitals that can provide specialized services and diagnosis, and there are institutions for the mentally ill. These are put in place to ensure the individuals are cared for and the family will be at ease because the institution handles the situation well.
Mental illnesses don’t choose an individual to inflict, Spiritual healing is recommended, but a good diagnosis can help family be at ease with consulting the traditional healers and ensuring the individual is taken to a specialist who will also be of assistance.
Again, the key to healing is taking away the shame, and talking about it, that would be the way to educate and know we are handling the issue to our capabilities.
