How Our Beliefs Relate to Self and Mental Health - Essay Example

How our beliefs relate to self and mental health Affiliation: Introduction Beliefs are opinions that people rely on and which guide them in their day to day activities as well as decision making. Belief systems are techniques or approaches set which guide individuals and which make people in that system come together as well as work together in aim of achieving set objectives or in fulfilling moral rules. There are various belief systems and structures that are present in society and which guide the lives of people. These belief systems are broadly classified into religious and non-religious belief systems. Some of these non-religious belief structures include but are not limited to feminism, culture, capitalism, humanism, scientology among others. The religious belief structures include: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism and Confucianism among others (Gerzon, 1997). This paper is going to focus on the belief system of culture and how this relates to the issue of self and mental illness negatively and the arguments against it. Culture is simply a combination of values, ethics and morals set and followed by a group of people and they vary from person to person. People are born into a particular culture and most do not get to choose which culture they want until they are older (Haarmann, 2007). Some cultures one cannot leave because they are based on the ethnic community one belongs to and which one cannot leave. Culture shapes the kind of person one becomes because one is provided with guidance in the form of morals, guidelines and rules one should follow as well as adhere to strictly failure to which it may lead to repercussions. Some cultures are more defined than others and this therefore provide clear sense of self to an individual belonging to that culture. A person is able to understand oneself and the choices one makes in life are heavily reliant on one’s culture whether realistic or not. An example of such staunch following to culture and gaining a sense of self is evident in most African cultures which still follow strictly and to the letter their cultures and are not influenced by western traditions or even scientific discoveries and evolutions. This sense of self one gain from association with such culture may be misleading and lead to creation of more problems to say the least and it may not always end up well as will be seen later on in the paper. An example of a belief is black magic. Culture shapes their members to believe that black magic exists and that it guides their every aspect to life. To them black magic makes an individual not steal or take that which does not belong to him or her without notifying the owner because it will lead to unnatural occurrences or at the very least cause a misfortune to the family and even for generations to come. This therefore shapes an individual to avoid stealing and always borrowing and this shapes the sense for the better (Smythe, Baydala and Pappas, 2007). This black magic like the one believed by the people in West African countries such as Nigeria can also negatively affect the people and especially where the issue of mental health is related (Taylor, 2009). When an individual becomes mentally ill or starts to show signs or mental illness, the individual is said to have been bewitched. The culture does not allow them to think in terms of medical science and hence even the remedies they will take will be related to black magic and their own cultural guidance (Oguejiofor and Wendl, 2012). The sick individual is taken to witch doctors and magicians to try to find out the cause of their problem or more specifically who “threw” black magic at them. This is followed by a lot of cleansing rituals that may take long periods of time and are not at all effective. The lack of any improvements in the patient lead to a change in the magician and consultation is made with several other magicians to try and cure or get rid of the curse bestowed on the mentally ill individual. Majority of these magicians are frauds and only benefit from the family of the mentally ill patient by demanding animals for sacrifices (which they do not sacrifice but add to their wealth) and numerous sums of money which they extort from the families. Some families even go bankrupt and others start feuds amongst themselves due to the never ending treatments and money spent on medicine men, witch doctors and magicians. All this while, the patient’s condition is deteriorating as nothing seems to work in their traditional medicine. Lack of results from magicians propels them to seek traditional medicine for cure. This leads to another bout of treatment from herbs and roots which only add to other health problems to the patient. The last resort is to go to church and seek divine intervention from the pastors and other religious leaders. By this time, the mental condition of the patient is at the point of no return and may lead to permanent damage. All this is brought about by the lack of belief in scientific medicine which is popularly referred to as “white man’s medicine or western medicine.” They do not believe in going to hospital and hence even the most severe of medical conditions is not taken to hospital and they somehow get better with time if the health condition is not so severe (Bartlett, 2003). The mental illnesses are however severe and should get checked by mental health professionals. Mental health has many causes depending on which mental health an individual is diagnosed with. Some mental illnesses are hereditary but most are brought about by stress. It is hard to therefore know the cause of the mental health problem being experienced by an individual or even the type of mental health it is until a mental health professional examines the patient. This means that people diagnosed with mental illnesses cannot self-medicate without knowing what their problem is in the first place. This is the reason the cultural people of West Africa and others whose belief structure is based on culture are wrong to make their first choice of diagnosis and treatment being black magic. Delayed treatment of mental health according to (Zafar, et al. 2008) will lead to a more severe problem in the present or in future. Other types of mental health such as schizophrenia lead to the patients having violence tendencies not only to themselves but to the others with them as well. This therefore means that the patient is at risk to themselves and to those near them. The more they keep such a patient subjecting them to many type of uncertified medication, the higher the exposure to violence they are creating. The person is also at risk to commit suicide due to the symptoms such as extreme paranoia. This belief system as has been established is negative and very inconsiderate to the mental health patients who are the whole time suffering and not getting any meaningful treatment at all. This belief system is not only prevalent in West Africa but in other African states as well as other nations in Asia which belief in some supernatural powers being in charge and hence doing away with any medication or treatment that is not traditional or in agreement with their culture (Murray, 2007). What this leads to is increased cases of untreated mentally ill patients, high prevalence of suicide related to mental health as well as murders when the patient does not seem to get better after sacrifices and spending a lot on other forms of treatment other than medication. Arguments can be raised for and against such mentioned belief systems. Culture is regarded very highly in societies and hence any divergence from rules of culture means going against the sense of self one has created as well as risking repercussions from the rest of the community members. The repercussions may be as extreme as excommunication from the community, being subjected to black magic and even being killed and bodies fed to wild animals. These people therefore are not wrong in putting their culture and belief system first above the mental health of one of their own (Kishore, et al. 2011). On the other hand, these people may not be informed about mental health and hence an encounter with such an illness will not raise any alarm with them and they will not know of the dangers they are putting the patient in or even putting themselves in. What is needed is not to condemn them of their naïve actions but to find ways to educate them on the matter of mental health including the signs and symptoms and the dangers in not acting immediately by taking the person for medical check-up in a hospital. This will prevent them from subjecting the patient to unnecessary ineffective treatments. It will also protect themselves and others from violence as well. These cultural people should be taught that mental illness is not witchcraft and hence should not be subjected to such treatments. All in all, some of the people who follow these cultures are medical health professionals who are fully aware of the symptoms of mental illness and are also aware of the dangers of not having immediate treatment administered to the patient. What the cultural beliefs have done is made the people ignorant of the happenings in the rest of the world as well as to the existing scientific treatment. Their “addiction” to black magic and wanting to associate everything with black magic has led them to refuse to acknowledge every other thing going on around them. These people should try to balance their cultural belief systems with the scientific discoveries in existence in order to reduce the prevalence and deaths of their community members (Pande, Saini and Chaudhury, 2011). References Bartlett, J. (2003). Exploring the Unknown, the Strange, and the Supernatural. Massachusetts: Xulon Press. Oguejiofor, J. and Wendl, T. (2012). Exploring the Occult and Paranormal in West Africa. Paris: LIT Verlag Munster. Taylor, M. (2009). Universes without Selves: Cosmologies of the Non-human in American Literature. Massachusetts: The Johns Hopkins University. Murray, D. (2007). Matter, Magic, and Spirit: Representing Indian and African American Belief. University of Pennsylvania Press. Smythe, W., Baydala, A. and Pappas, J. (2007). Cultural Healing and Belief Systems. New Jersey: Detselig Enterprises. Gerzon, M. (1997). A House Divided: Six Belief Systems Struggling for Americas Soul. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Putnam. Haarmann, H. (2007). Foundations of Culture: Knowledge-construction, Belief Systems and Worldview in Their Dynamic Interplay. New York: Peter Lang. Pande, V., Saini, R. and Chaudhury, S. (January, 2011). “Attitude toward mental illness amongst urban nonpsychiatric health professionals.” Indian Psychiatry Journal, vol. 20(1), pp. 17- 20. Kishore, J. et al. (Oct-Dec, 2011). “Myths, beliefs and perceptions about mental disorders and health-seeking behavior in Delhi, India.” Indian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 53(4), pp. 324-329. Zafar S. et al. (July 17th, 2008). “Perceptions about the cause of schizophrenia and the subsequent help seeking behavior in a Pakistani population - results of a cross-sectional survey.” BMC Psychiatry, vol. 17, pp. 8:56. Read More