In A Culture of Faith and Need for Health Treatment – Where To Set The Dividing Line -By Caleb Onah

Abayomi who was 27, left with a son, and went wandering for no purpose one evening. His mother was at church and her ex-husband called and said that her son was running around Oshodi Market in Lagos. In our interaction with her, she contacted Abayomi by phone, whose name she had changed for privacy purposes, she went immediately, leaving behind what she was doing so she could help him find his way home. She said on getting to where he was, “His words were incoherent, and he looked around strangely, saying people were after him,” That’s when I realized something was wrong. Now he turned, sighed, smiled, and sighed again, weighed down by the weight of his memory. He was wearing a white shirt and tilted his head slightly, as if listening to a stranger.

Abayomi’s mother considered taking him to a doctor, after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia 5 years ago by a psychiatrist after receiving the call. So, his mother appointed her mentor as suggested by friends, a religious leader in a white garment church. He told him the solution was “ìràpadà”, a common form of deliverance session to “bind and cleanse him”. It will cost him 25,000 Nigerian Naira only.

She sought this alternative treatment method because she couldn’t afford to pay the 100,000 Nigerian Naira treatment bill given by the hospital. “There was no support anywhere,” Abike said. “So, we turned to spiritual help. It is cheaper and more accessible so, if you really need help and a real solution is far away, look no further”.

She further noted, “After praying, he seemed calm, everything started returning to normal and Abayomi is back in his life. Two months later, my father called again. This time things got even worse. Abayomi was naked at the market. They took him to a traditional doctor who had already died in Ifo, in Ogun State. His method was to beat and shack the patient. Abayomi’s mother said “He got better after a while but kept having some relapse”

Dr. Jibril Abdul-Malik, founder of the Ashido Foundation, a counselling psychologist at University Teaching Hospital in Ibadan, once said, “people with mental health problems – friends or relatives see them as a spiritual issue, so, I’d go to a traditional or religious healer first”, This which I personally think is because of the large gaps and cost in the treatment of mental illness, patients and their loved ones often look for other avenues that offer a glimmer of hope.

This is one of the most fascinating and complex interactions taking place in our field of mental health and healthcare is the almost unanimous recognition of the parallel advancement of spiritual, biological and sociocultural knowledge components in the field.

However, our faith and religion should not be isolated from our health recovery journey. As researchers continue to study the health benefits and harms of religion, yes, we know of several health and mental health benefits associated with spiritual beliefs and practices, including a sense of community, connection to the outside world, hope and purpose. Religious and religious healers, on the other hand, still point to external causes of a person’s illness or disability.

Many of our religious leaders will assert that the stars are to blame, the gods are angry, and things are going badly and imperfect ancestors, etc as seen in the case of Abayomi and Abike. However, in adjuvant therapy and counselling, some mental health professionals and spiritual healers attribute the cause to themselves, which can be difficult to accept.

We choose religious people who tend to offer supernatural explanations for our illness and help alleviate the symptoms which isn’t any bad at all because it has proven to the effective when integrated. But it is important to note that, our health-seeking and healing behaviour is determined by support systems and coping mechanisms provided by a combination of religion or faith, cultural practices, family pressures, and financial constraints.

Additionally, belief in a higher power nevertheless can be very beneficial to our general health, especially for some of us who understand the structures and traditions that religion has brought to us. The task of building a relationship with a higher power or the entire universe can be very rewarding as well.

In fact, religion in addiction to activity has been shown to further help us reduce stress, reduce anxiety, and stabilize emotional fluctuations. Practitioners of various religions may embrace the idea that someone greater than them is in control and can help them cope with difficult life situations.

Understanding the differences between a health crisis, faith and religion is critical to getting to the root of the problem. However, different approaches may work differently for different people. To stay strong and healthy, religion should teach us to practice self-deception, reject conflicting evidence, and trust health authorities and experts – doctors, therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists more than our own thinking abilities which may dive into other aspects of life in better ways. In particular, government becomes more of a battle between competing ideologies than a quest to find practical, evidence-based solutions that promote happiness.