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The Desirability of Friendship
Friendship is a sacred commitment to trust and care for someone you hold in high esteem, whom you are not really expecting any reward from in return for the gift of your friendship. But here is the twist: when you initiate such a friendship, don’t seek people’s approval to be relevant or make life comprehensible to you. If you do so, you will live all your life in deep regret. Caroline Myss observes that “When you do not seek or need approval, you are at your most powerful.” But whenever you seek or need the approval of others to remain in a friendship, you are in the wrong friendship. At this point, people’s goal will be to toy with your emotions and leave you at their mercy for you to survive.The key to nurturing an enduring friendship is mutual care — consistently showing up for one another with empathy, commitment, trust, and respect. This means active listening, honest communication, and supporting each other through the highs and lows of life. It also involves shared experience of memorable events and forgiveness for mutual imperfections in order to strengthen the bond of friendship over time.
Your Mental Well-Being and the Imperative of Coping with Stress
Mental health breakdown is a big deal! The number of people suffering from depression around the world is alarming! In Africa, it is estimated that between 100 million - 116 million people are suffering from clinical depression and other psychotic illnesses, according to the World Health Organization. This is about 10 percent of the entire African population. The situation is even more terrifying in Nigeria, the most populous black nation in the world. It is estimated that about 1 in every 4 Nigerians is suffering from chronic depression or any other psychotic illness, which means about 50 million of the entire 200 million population is depressed.
The numbers in the US, where I currently reside, are not very palatable either. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) recorded that 1 in 5 US adults experiences mental illness each year. 1 in 20 US adults experience serious mental illness each year. 1 in 6 US youth aged 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year. Fifty percent of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 14, and 75 percent by age 24. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among people aged 10-14. Some observers have called the situation a silent epidemic. This will undoubtedly become another global pandemic if proactive actions are not taken!
Why Do I Need to Live My Life with Purpose and Meaning?
The question that comes to my mind every day I wake up from my bed is: What legacy do I plan to leave after I am gone? The answer is what inspires me every day to work with people with mental health disabilities, and that is one of the areas where I derive meaning for my life. It is why I took Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) Units 1 – 4. It is the same reason I have become a Certified Mental Health Coach and Certified Mental Health Advocate.I dream of radically transforming the mental health sector across Sub-Saharan Africa, hence my intentional immersion in how it is done in a more advanced society like the US. The effort here is to concentrate on my future legacy so that when people remember me, they will remember me as a worthy example to emulate.
What Mental Health Breakdown Starts to Look Like in Its Victims
Mental Health breakdown is very devastating for the sufferers and their families, but we can put a check on it if we know what to watch out for in the victims. Mental illness is now a global spread; young adults in their early and late twenties are the most vulnerable. Luckily, it does not happen without leaving a footprint over an extended period. If people pay detailed attention to its warning signs, it always leaves itself with a clue before its devastating damage. Early detection of symptoms helps curb the disease's disastrous impact on its victims. There are many convincing testimonies of those who have survived the scary scars of mental illness. Nobody needs to suffer in silence or be ashamed to seek help when required.
What is Mental Wellness?
Some time ago, I talked with a registered psychiatric nurse and a family friend to find out his thoughts on the definition of Mental wellness. He told me, "Mental wellness is a positive state of mental health. It is more than the absence of mental illness."Mentally well people are upbeat, self-assured, and happy. They are in control of their thoughts, emotions, and behavior. This enables them to handle challenges, build strong relationships, and enjoy life fully.
The Pursuit of Ecstatic and Eternal Happiness
Happiness has been a subject exposed to an age-long contemplation among philosophers. The most profound definition of it was from Aristotle, who described it as a state of eudaimonia - the state of the total well-being of a man. When thought about comprehensively, eudaimonia encapsulates a flourishing life and a form of true and transcendent Happiness. Therefore, in a sense, I can define Happiness as having a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment, which results from putting your best into a task with positive results or rewards to show for it. Most people are pretty familiar with this in their conceptual understanding of Happiness.