The depressed and mentally ill are still falling through the cracks

YESTERDAY, The New Times reported the death by suicide of 25-year old Yohana Ntawuhiganayo, the young Bugesera resident who was found dead in his home, having reportedly hanged himself while under a marijuana induced haze. His father, Jean Pierre Nduwamungu, while decrying the loss of his son, did not sound surprised at his fate. “My son was one of the youth spoilt by drugs. He smoked marijuana and looked mad most of the time. He has been in trouble with Police and courts often sent him to jail because of smoking marijuana”, he is quoted saying when he received the news of his son’s suicide. “That he hanged himself is sad and gives us bad moment as parents, but it’s no big surprise to me. His next home was Rilima Prison. He took life for granted and never had a future.”The district’s Executive Secretary, Jean Pierre Rwiririza, while addressing mourners, said that suicide was a “ sign of failure”. He told them to seek help from friends, “if you feel you can’t get solutions to your problems.... it is absolutely wrong to resort to drug use”.The article raised a few issues that I think absolutely need to be addressed. The young man in question obviously had some mental health issues, which is why he eventually committed suicide. Blaming marijuana for these mental health issues are a cop out. While the link between mental health issues and drug use havent been studied in Rwanda, it has in the United States. According to Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Daniel Hall-Flavin, a certified general psychiatry and addiction psychiatry expert, while there is no clear evidence that marijuana use directly causes depression, “it’s likely that the genetic, environmental or other factors that trigger depression also lead to marijuana use. For example, some people may use marijuana as a way to cope with depression symptoms”. In an article titled ‘Mental Health and Marijuana’ the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute reveal that while while some people suffer psychotic symptoms after a lot of marijuana, the drug has been shown to ‘make psychotic symptoms worse in those who ALREADY have a psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia’.So, it would seem that the scientific consensus on this issue is that mental health issues more often lead to marijuana abuse, and NOT the other way around.I am in no way trying to justify drug abuse. All I’m saying is that there has to be a more nuanced approach to what befell the poor, young man. It can’t the simple open and shut case of ‘he smoked marijuana, acted batty and then hanged himself’. Something his father said really touched a nerve. “He took life for granted and never had a future”.What we should ask is, why did Yohana Ntawuhiganayo act like he had no future? Why did he keep smoking marijuana, even when it continued taking a huge toll on both him and his family? What demons finally got to him? And most importantly, how could his death have been avoided and his life saved?In my own experience, I’ve encountered a few people whose behaviour I thought was odd enough to warrant some form of mental examination. As I sure most people have as well. However, what often followed was simply a shake of the head and a muttered ‘mbega umusazi’ (what a crazy person). More often than not, I’d then blame their erratic behaviour on either too much alcohol or simply some character flaw. Yet, as I’ve come to believe, what I might have witnessed was some form of mental health issues.So, what is the way forward? The Ministry of Health has instituted the National Mental Health Policy, which includes a provision about sensitisation. But this issue cannot be left in their hands alone. Parents and teachers especially need to be aware of mental health issues, how to spot them and, most importantly, what to do when faced with them. Until that happens, I’m afraid that more needless tragedies will occur, simply because of our own ignorance. Sunny is a New Times journalist and post-graduate student in China