Samir Abdel Karim-Cairo
“Psychotherapy, peripheral support and increased awareness of mental illness” is a trilogy proposed by psychologists to counter the negative impact of the mounting difficulties in Egypt, especially social and physical, on the mental health of Egyptians.
According to the latest survey of the General Secretariat of Mental Health in Egypt in 2018, 25% of Egyptians suffer from mental disorders and symptoms, i.e. 1 in 4 of the subjects has symptoms or mental disorders.
Continuing the crisis prompted the professor of psychiatry and adviser to the President of the Republic of mental health, Dr. Ahmed Okasha to launch a national campaign to remove the stigma of mental illness last June under the slogan "psychological pain like (any) disease .. has a cure.
The campaign came amid repeated news stories in the local media in Egypt on a daily basis about the psychological crises that push Egyptians to commit suicide, death, sadness or abnormal appearance.
On Friday, September 13, the #Support_Moen_Zakaria tagged Twitter posts for Twitter in solidarity with Al-Ahly player Mo'men Zakaria after going through a psychological crisis and appearing abnormally.
A 35-year-old man also tried to commit suicide on Friday, according to local media, by jumping into the Nile from Egypt's famous May 15 Bridge, claiming he was in a psychological crisis, but security forces foiled his attempt.
On Wednesday, September 11, a worker from the Abu Tisht center, north of Qena, committed suicide following a psychological crisis, according to the state-owned Akhbar al-Youm news portal, although Upper Egypt's governorates are known for their durability.
According to the World Health Organization in a report published Monday (September 9th), Egypt topped the list of Arab countries in terms of the number of suicides in 2016, where there were 3799 suicides, and the number of men committed suicide exceeded the number of women suicides (3,095 suicide against 704 suicide).
Mounting pressure
Cognitive and behavioral treatment of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Dr. Rasmia Ali Fahmi believes in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net that psychological pressure is escalating in Egypt due to the spread of feelings of fear, anxiety, inequality, lack of security, lack of personal and social security and the absence of role models, which negatively affected the mental health of Egyptians.
She explained that in the face of these negative feelings resort to the body defensive tricks to overcome some of them appear in mental illnesses such as resort to depression and isolation or resort to increased feelings of anxiety and the subsequent obsessive-compulsive disease and violence in order to create a dominant figure facing the conditions of life.
The obsessive-compulsive disorder has increased dramatically in Egypt over the past five years, according to her observations and illnesses, and depression has nearly doubled 10 times before those in Egypt.
She pointed out that the pressures lead to personality disorders, which is reflected in the Egyptian daily situation in the models of lack of conscience, bribery and deception to the extent of "killing the victim and walking in his funeral," as she put it, which resulted in a common pattern of respect for the strong and contempt of the weak and hurt.
Fahmi pointed out that the pressures in Egypt have also produced "avoidable personalities" suffering from excessive fear, which is not a small percentage in Egyptian society, as well as produced suspicious figures that greatly mistrust and cause great pain to its surroundings may develop violence that manifest in repeated family crimes.
She pointed out that the most difficult manifestations managed in the development of these diseases and pressure on children, young people are the weakest link in the circle of life, as the pressure of life through their parents and make them deformed children violently deceptively, which hurts their future before their present.
As for the medical treatment of these diseases and phenomena, Dr. believes that the first solution can be to get out of the circle of the crisis and the scope of pain and negative impact, which is appreciated by the doctor with the patient so that he does not live in a place that increases the pain.
The request for medical assistance was very important, so that the doctor intervened in time.
She explained that there are expensive clinics in Egypt, but they can deal with them, and there are suitable hospitals for all such as hospitals Abbasiya, Helwan and Demerdash in Cairo.
The official pointed out the importance of increasing awareness of reading in the face of psychological pressure and resort to increase the spiritual and faith dimension as it contributes significantly to achieve psychological support in the light of the idea that God Almighty is capable and gentle and wise and strong.
Shocking ratio
In the same context, the psychological and family counselor Dr. Abeer Abdullah that the suffering of Egyptians has increased very recently, where increased psychological pressure and the sale of mental illnesses and disorders, so that it affected 25% of the Egyptian people.
She adds in a statement to Al Jazeera Net that this ratio is large and shocking and attributed to the instability of political life and poor security situation and economic difficulties, which led to increased social suffering and the emergence of family disintegration and the absence of the role of the family as a whole of society, which violated the face of psychological repercussions on the Egyptians.
Abeer stresses that the patient must turn to psychotherapy immediately in conjunction with psychological support from those around him to face the conditions of life with appropriate participatory to avoid crises.
She stresses that awareness of mental illness in Egypt is evolving and requires more enlightenment and highlighting to save the Egyptians from the pressures that are increasing dramatically due to the current circumstances.