Clinical Psychologist, Jude Richwell Menokpor, outlines common causes of mental health disorders like depression and educates on signs indicating a potential onset of depression.
He emphasizes biological and psychological factors as triggers for depression and various mental health issues. Providing in-depth insights on GhanaWeb TV’s Lowdown program, Jude elaborates further, stating:
“With mental health disorders, the causes are…we have a myriad of causes, a lot of them and it stems from; like I mentioned earlier in the part one that the biopsychosocial model where the biological causes could either be hereditary. So, you could have inherited the condition from a parent, a first-line family member or someone. It is genetic. Your genetic makeup could determine your vulnerability to this condition.”
He continued, “Coming to psychological, it could be issues regarding things that can disrupt your psychological well-being or state. So, something with regards to your relationship not working out well, your expectations for something and then it not happening and maybe having low self-esteem, not understanding the reason why certain things are happening and also importantly, having a pessimistic mindset. So, people tend to attribute whatever happens to them to negative things,” he told GhanaWeb’s Daniel Oduro.
Additionally, the Clinical Psychologist mentioned that individuals experiencing difficulty conforming to societal norms may also undergo mental or psychological distress.
“For instance, you get an accident, a minor accident not a major road accident and then you assume that you are not lucky enough; you are not worthy enough to have been favoured by God to avoid such an accident happening to you.
“Also, we mentioned earlier that issues regarding the society, you not being able to conform with societal norms can cause you to have mental or psychological distress or mental health issues,” he said.
Jude also highlighted that issues within the family structure can contribute to depression, citing family size as a potential factor.
“Maybe you grew up in a large family size where attention wasn’t particularly given to you because of the number of people in your family and that could also lead you to have mental health issues,” he concluded.
On the same show, Priscilla Armah who is also a trainee Clinical Psychologist said Menopause has been identified as a cause of some mental health disorders.
She asserted that during menopause, there are hormonal changes which can cause depression as well as low self-esteem.
“So, menopause can also cause depression because at that age, the hormonal changes and all that, because you are no more menstruating and the hormone that is causing it has stopped, it can lead the person into depression.
“So, if I have a problem with my shape, I think any dress I wear doesn’t fit, I think when I pass by and people are even laughing, I think they’re laughing at me, I’m not having that confidence and all that. I think about all that, it makes me feel sad and that one causes depression and then the postpartum depression we talked about and then also the family history.”
“So, if an uncle was diagnosed with depression or anxiety and you ask and you are told your grandfather too was diagnosed, the probability of you also getting it is very high,” she said.