A Frightening Encounter
Have you had any frightening encounter with a stranger? I bet you have! What lesson did you learn from it?
I remember such an encounter that I had about twelve years ago. I was driving to town from home in the morning and I saw this relatively young woman standing by the road side, seeking transportation. It looked like it was going to rain and she appeared to be rather worried. I therefore stopped my car and offered to give her a ride. She then gratefully hopped into my car.
“Where are you going to, please?” I asked.
“I’m going to the Mental Hospital”, she calmly replied. (That was how we commonly referred to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.)
Following her reply, my heart missed a beat. I struggled to keep an impassive expression on my face, whereas in reality, all sorts of thoughts were racing in my head. Fear and a sense of foreboding suddenly filled me. This made my blood run cold. Had I unknowingly picked up a mentally-deranged person? What if she was violent and tried to harm me? How would I defend myself? Was I safe in the car?
“So, what are you going to do there?”, I gently asked, while driving and pondering various escape options in my head in the case of an emergency. Maybe I could just stop the car and ran away with the key to the car if things got out of hand.
I couldn’t help remembering with dread, a movie that I had watched years ago entitled,”The Hitch-Hiker”. In the movie, two guys picked up a hitchhiker who turned out to be a sociopath on the run from the law. They thought that he was going to harm them and as such, they were terrified throughout the journey. Was this incident going to be a re-run of The Hitch-Hiker?
Post-partum depression
“I suffer from post partum depression,” she replied. “After I had my baby, I had frequent bouts of sadness during which I became disinterested in all that was happening around me. As a result, I even lost interest in living. My husband was therefore exasperated with my behaviour and abandoned me. Fortunately, a family member took me to the hospital and the doctor made a diagnosis of post partum depression. Since then, I have been going to the Mental Hospital periodically to see the doctor. Presently, I am taking a course of medication to address this situation,” she patiently narrated.
A Sigh of Relief
I therefore heaved a big sigh of relief. It appeared that danger was not looming over my head, after all. Post-partum depression could affect any woman. The important thing was that the doctor had made a diagnosis and was treating her. After that, we chatted amicably about general topics for the rest of the journey. I eventually dropped her at the hospital uneventfully. Consequently, I silently thanked God that all went well without any eventualities.
Soul-searching
As a result of this incident, I did a lot of soul-searching. I started thinking about our negative attitudes towards mental health challenges in general and our prejudices against people with mental health challenges. From my musings, I realised that consciously or subconsciously, we discriminate against people with mental health challenges. We tend to forget that that person with a mental health challenge could be us, one day. Is that how we would want people to treat us?
Overcoming Prejudice
Thus, I decided to read and learn more about mental health. I believed that gaining education about a subject was one of the best ways to curb prejudice against it. Ignorance only clouds our sense of judgement. Irrational behaviour occurs as a result. Empathy is key.
As a result of this experience with the young woman, I gained more education about mental health. I also buried my prejudices against people with mental health challenges and I had more empathy towards them.
Sometimes, we just need to get out of our comfort zones and overcome our prejudices. You never know the difference that your little act of kindness might make to someone else. Tomorrow, you may be the one who needs a helping hand. Let us plant a seed of kindness today! We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
In practising self-care, kindly check out Self-Care Prescription: Powerful Solutions to Manage Stress, Reduce Anxiety & Increase Wellbeing by Robyn Gobin PhD. The book is as shown below. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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