A mental health advocate, Mrs Veronica Ezeh, has urged Nigerians, especially youths, to refrain from suicide and use of hard drugs in the face of surmountable challenges of life.
Ezeh, the Chief Executive Officer, Adicare Rehabilitation Home, an NGO, made the call while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos, ahead of the ‘2020 World Drug Day’ to be marked on June 26.
She said that resorting to use of hard drugs or committing suicide were never an option to tackle life’s challenges, saying that it had been observed to be very common among Nigerians, particularly youths.
According to her, people should speak out and seek solutions to their problems rather than intoxicating themselves with hard drugs, which when it clears, the problems remains.
She, therefore, urged Nigerians to always embrace whatever they were going through as a challenge that could be tackled without resorting to negative alternatives.
Ezeh, also a Psychiatric Nurse at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, said that bottling-up challenges would do more harm than good, adding that a problem shared was already halfway solved.
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“Where a youth thinks using hard drugs could create an escape route from his or her immediate challenges, the challenges are still there when effect of the hard drug wears off.
“You can open up about your challenges with parents, friends, colleagues or neighbours for the solution to your problems instead of bottling them up or considering negative alternatives,” she said.
The psychiatric nurse identified the alternatives or negative alternatives to include things like drugs, suicide, use of alcohol excessively as well as use of illicit drugs like cannabis, tramadol, codeine and other common drugs.
“These are devil’s alternative to the challenges, and it can only bring even more sorrow and more pains by causing more mental health challenges if you take them.
‘’Suicide is not, cannot, should not and ought not to be the solution to challenges.
“Challenges are parts of life that brings out the best in every individual.
“Determination is a father of distinction. Be optimistic in life, have a focus and you will be focussed.
“There is no challenge that cannot be surmounted, because with God, all things are possible,” she advised. (NAN)
