As the firstborn and only son of his parents, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Emmanuel Sarpong was already in a state of uncertainty.

“Before the pandemic, I was already dealing with my own pandemic. I was trying to find my feet, my space and fulfilment,” he said.

He had just started working with a prominent media company in Ghana, as a Television Director. In the beginning of the pandemic, he was called to host a show on television – an opportunity he talks about so passionately. He was on the screens of one of Ghana’s biggest media companies, every day of the week.

“After having had such a successful run of the show, having my co-host come on board and changing the face of the show, I tested positive for COVID-19,” he said.

Like most young people infected with COVID-19, though he showed some symptoms, Emmanuel initially thought it was just stress from work. As part of the company’s policy, he had already tested twice for COVID-19 and both results came out negative, but, this time, he was showing symptoms- fever, loss of taste and smell and mild headaches.

“I immediately had to fight a mental battle and defeat the thoughts of the consequence of testing positive,” he says.

Perhaps the most difficult time for him was when his audience became frustrated with his absence on TV and began sending him messages.

“These were private messages telling me ‘we are moving on if you don’t return to our screens. We are going to delete your channel’. At that point, I just wanted to go back because I didn’t want to lose them, then on my way to recovery, my co-host also tested positive. You can imagine what I was going through”.

It is certainly a difficult time for everyone, regardless of who or where you are. The world is now in a state of uncertainty and fear. In Ghana, more than 70,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at the time of publication.

In the early days of the pandemic, COVID-19 was thought to be associated with older people, but recent observations and studies have revealed that the virus can severely impact the health of young people too, and can even be life-threatening.

One in Five COVID-19 Survivors Develop Mental Illness

“The situation we have is likely to create all sort of mental health problems. The moment you isolate people, their mental health begins to deteriorate. Once their social network is broken, it will trigger mental health issues,” says Dr Richard Luther-King, an Accra-based counselling psychologist and occupational psychotherapist.

Experts say we are in a midst of a mental health epidemic and it will only get worse. Findings from a recent study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry journal, show 20 percent of people infected with COVID-19 were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder within 90 days.

The study analysed electronic health records of 69 million people in the United States, including more than 62,000 who had cases of COVID-19. In the three months after they tested positive for COVID-19, one in five survivors was recorded as having a first-time diagnosis of anxiety, depression or insomnia.

Before COVID-19 hit, access to mental healthcare was already a challenge in Ghana, and patients with mental health problems often faced stigmatization.

Again, in Ghana, mental health is hardly a priority and the majority of people resort to spiritual help for mental health patients. Mental health problems such as anxiety and depression are, somewhat, normalized, with the popular comment, “An African doesn’t get depressed”

Counselling psychologist, Dr Richard Luther-King, puts it rightly, “We live is a religious country and many of us are very superstitious. We have been socialized to not easily burst into tears, but internalize whatever we go through, and we are made to believe that if you go to see a clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist, then you’re mad,” he says.

Mental health institutions are also seriously under-resourced and there is a systemic practice of mental health professionals shunning their qualification to work in other disciplines due to the lack of motivation.

“We have a brain drain currently because most advanced nations are looking for mental health professionals to help them, due to the pandemic. So a lot of these professionals are jumping at these opportunities because they will earn more, they will have the right equipment and the systems are well-organized in those countries,” says Dr Luther-King.

Losing a friend to COVID-19

“I am scared. I am taken aback. I am too careful and it has taken away a very big part of me. It’s just draining,” says Lilipearl.

Lilipearl Baaba Otoo is a young journalist with the Business and Financial Times, one of Africa’s reputable business media companies. Since the pandemic hit, she had 5 people in her close circle test positive for COVID-19 and lost 2, one of them was her friend.

“They both got critically ill, and were admitted in the ICU, then I got word that one of them was getting better but the other was getting worse by the day. We were praying. I couldn’t sleep, I was so scared. I dreaded the day that I was going to hear that I lost both of them or even one of them. The same evening one of them called me to inform me that the other lady was gone. I was devastated,” she narrated, painfully.

Lilipearl says since the loss of her friend she has been living in constant fear. She says her state of mind, before the pandemic, was very strong and she always thought of death happening, as she put it, “as not to me but to someone else”.

“But since this happened, I have become so paranoid. I don’t know whether I am developing OCD, but I wash my hands so much, and, now, I sanitize my phone, my glasses, my earrings. I sanitize everything that comes into close contact with my face. When I touch a car door knob, I quickly sanitize my hands. I have become so conscious and cautious of myself and my surroundings,” she says, with frustration.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can be triggered by a traumatic experience, depression and anxiety. OCD is a mental health illness characterised by obsessions and compulsions- the constant thought or urge to do something repeatedly.

The counselling psychologist, Dr Luther-King, says people with OCD may start to have problems with their human relations – either in the office or the family.

“The threshold for managing stress or anxiety is very low among people with OCD, so they need a professional to help them navigate their way,’’ he advised.

“For someone who has lost a close friend or relative, crying is normal but if you can’t cope after that and you still experience extreme fear, and have repeated thoughts that you may die too, then you need help,” he says.

Lilipearl says she also had insomnia, paranoia thoughts and extreme anger- “at the government, at God and everyone”.

The young journalist, in her late twenties, says she had hoped that it was just a bad chapter. She closed it and moved on, but having the conversation now brings the pain back alive.

“It hurts” -she looks up and sighs, then she continues-“it really hurts and it makes me feel like ‘wow, so this is it?’”.

Self-Isolating and Waiting For COVID-19 Test Results

26-year-old Adzo Selasi Ahiekpor had just completed her first degree and begun working with a Health Directorate as a national service personal-a requirement for every Ghanaian citizen, after their diploma or first degree. The nature of the job brought her in contact with patients of COVID-19 and colleagues-health practitioners-who tested positive too. She quickly went into self-isolation and got tested.

“The more I thought about it the more impact it had on my mental health. When I started thinking about it, I would start experiencing headaches, I would feel feverish and I just feared more and more, so I decided to stop thinking about it,” she recalled.

In the face of uncertainty-as it is during an unprecedented pandemic-a stress response is a normal reaction until it becomes an impediment.

“When people are confronted with an uncertain outcome, the normal reaction is likely to be fear and worry. People are able to cope with that, but when their abilities to cope are compromised, then they are likely to snap into depression or experience other mental health deficiency issues,” says Dr Luther-King.

In Ghana, it is every National services personnel hope that the company or institution where they served, would retain them or renew their contracts but when Selasi got a job offer, she declined. Her experience with COVID-19 and the fear that her mum-who has lung disease-might be exposed to the virus due to her, forced her into making that unexpected decision.

Will You Consider Seeking Professional Help?

“Some survivors of Covid-19 are returning with suicidal thoughts, some are coming in with extreme depression. We also have people exhibiting anti-social personality disorder traits. Some are dealing with hallucination and insomnia,” Luther-King shares.

Selorm Kofi Modey, an electrical engineer, says he was affected by the job cuts that the pandemic subjected many to. Due to the impact of the pandemic, the company he worked with had to send many of its employees home, including him, an intern. He later got a new job with an engineering company, but, few weeks later, he tested positive for COVID-19.

Although, he boasts of a strong support system that helped him stay sane during his treatment, he can’t seem to get over the stigma he experienced during that period. And when he recently heard that some people returned to the hospital with complaints of erectile dysfunction, months after their recovery, he panicked and has been living in the fear that the same thing might happen to him too.

Despite their experiences, none of these young people considered professional help. Emmanuel identifies as a Christian, so he believes his strong faith kept him going.

“I didn’t think the space I was in required that. I am also a very spiritual person so I find peace and comfort in God’s word. Despite all the craziness, for me, it’s about focusing on my faith,” he says, calmly.

Lilipearl, on the other hand, feels it’s a “rich lady thing” to say “I need to see a therapist”

“I feel it is bougie,” she says, then laughs.

Dr Luther-King is, however, worried that Ghana’s mental health system might become overwhelmed and struggle to deal with a spike in mental health illnesses, one he fears would happen in the coming months, or, even, years.

“Nearly two decades after the September 11 attacks, the victims and people who saw it happen, still live with the mental health consequences,” he says, with much concern.

He believes that this is the time for government to invest in the mental health system, a time for all corporate organizations to establish guidance and counselling units and engage clinical or counselling psychologists to support their staffs.

Source: citifmonline.com