0:00:01.222,0:00:02.937
Last year ...

0:00:02.937,0:00:04.081
was hell.

0:00:04.081,0:00:05.879
(Laughter)

0:00:08.671,0:00:12.247
It was my first time eating[br]Nigerian [jollof].

0:00:12.247,0:00:13.829
(Laughter)

0:00:14.716,0:00:15.982
Actually,

0:00:15.982,0:00:17.815
in all seriousness,

0:00:17.815,0:00:20.905
I was going through a lot[br]of personal turmoil.

0:00:21.335,0:00:23.729
Faced with enormous stress,

0:00:23.729,0:00:26.298
I suffered an anxiety attack.

0:00:26.745,0:00:29.826
On some days I could do no work.

0:00:30.436,0:00:32.356
On other days,

0:00:32.356,0:00:36.111
I just wanted to lay in my bed and cry.

0:00:36.861,0:00:42.133
My doctor asked if I'd like to speak[br]with a mental health professional

0:00:42.133,0:00:44.820
about my stress and anxiety.

0:00:45.028,0:00:46.985
Mental health?

0:00:47.192,0:00:51.082
I clammed up and violently[br]shook my head in protest.

0:00:53.417,0:00:58.593
I felt a profound sense of a shame ...

0:00:58.593,0:01:02.328
I felt the weight of stigma.

0:01:03.310,0:01:05.692
I have a loving, supportive family

0:01:05.692,0:01:08.172
and incredibly loyal friends,

0:01:08.172,0:01:10.643
yet I could not entertain the idea

0:01:10.643,0:01:14.936
of speaking to anyone[br]about my feeling of pain.

0:01:16.223,0:01:20.713
I felt suffocated[br]by the rigid architecture

0:01:20.713,0:01:23.455
of our African masculinity.

0:01:23.898,0:01:26.036
"People have real problems, Sangu.

0:01:26.036,0:01:27.960
Get over yourself."

0:01:29.128,0:01:32.076
The first time I heard "mental health,"

0:01:32.076,0:01:34.133
I was a boarding school student,

0:01:34.133,0:01:36.206
fresh off the boat from Ghana

0:01:36.206,0:01:38.681
at the Peddie School in New Jersey.

0:01:39.167,0:01:42.760
I had just gone through[br]the brutal experience

0:01:42.760,0:01:45.710
of losing seven loved ones[br]in the same month.

0:01:46.669,0:01:48.149
The school nurse,

0:01:48.149,0:01:50.321
concerned about what I'd gone through --

0:01:50.321,0:01:52.237
God bless her soul --

0:01:52.237,0:01:54.564
she inquired about my mental health.

0:01:55.479,0:01:58.091
"Is she mental?" I thought.

0:01:58.465,0:02:01.462
Does she not know I'm an African man?

0:02:01.774,0:02:03.793
Like Okonkwo in "Things Fall Apart,"

0:02:03.793,0:02:08.534
we African men neither process[br]nor express our emotions.

0:02:09.071,0:02:10.786
We deal with our problems --

0:02:10.786,0:02:13.027
(Applause)

0:02:13.416,0:02:15.438
We deal with our problems.

0:02:15.438,0:02:18.707
I called my brother and laughed[br]about [oyinbo] people --

0:02:18.707,0:02:20.231
white people --

0:02:20.231,0:02:22.111
and their strange diseases --

0:02:22.111,0:02:25.548
depression, ADD and those "weird things."

0:02:26.672,0:02:28.745
Growing up in West Africa,

0:02:28.745,0:02:30.939
when people used the term "mental,"

0:02:30.939,0:02:33.286
what came to mind was a madman

0:02:33.286,0:02:35.425
with dirty, dread-locked hair,

0:02:35.425,0:02:38.367
bumbling around half-naked on the streets.

0:02:39.129,0:02:40.948
We all know this man.

0:02:41.110,0:02:43.642
Our parents warned us about him.

0:02:43.920,0:02:45.489
"Mommy, mommy, why is he mad?"

0:02:45.489,0:02:46.725
"Drugs!

0:02:46.725,0:02:47.977
If you even look at drugs,

0:02:47.977,0:02:49.427
you end up like him."

0:02:49.427,0:02:51.034
(Laughter)

0:02:51.255,0:02:53.256
Come down with pneumonia,

0:02:53.256,0:02:55.728
and your mother will rush you[br]to the nearest hospital

0:02:55.728,0:02:57.788
for medical treatment.

0:02:58.190,0:03:01.558
But dare to declare depression,

0:03:01.558,0:03:05.076
and your local pastor[br]will be driving out demons

0:03:05.076,0:03:07.466
and blaming witches in your village.

0:03:07.859,0:03:10.441
I called into the World[br]Health Organization.

0:03:10.441,0:03:15.212
Mental health is about being able[br]to cope with the normal stresses of life.

0:03:16.021,0:03:19.643
To work productively and fruitfully,

0:03:19.643,0:03:23.270
and to be able to make[br]a contribution to your community.

0:03:23.673,0:03:26.792
Mental health includes our emotional,

0:03:26.792,0:03:28.593
psychological

0:03:28.593,0:03:30.529
and our social well-being.

0:03:31.100,0:03:35.717
Globally, 75 percent[br]of all mental illness cases

0:03:35.717,0:03:38.235
can be found in low-income countries.

0:03:38.525,0:03:40.380
Yet most African governments

0:03:40.380,0:03:45.491
invest less than one percent of their[br]health care budget on mental health.

0:03:46.821,0:03:48.299
Even [West,]

0:03:48.299,0:03:52.418
we have a severe shortage[br]of psychiatrists in Africa.

0:03:53.064,0:03:58.039
Nigeria, for example,[br]is estimated to have 200

0:03:58.039,0:04:01.314
in a country of almost 200 million.

0:04:02.522,0:04:04.015
In all of Africa,

0:04:04.015,0:04:08.108
90 percent of our people[br]lack access to treatment.

0:04:08.829,0:04:10.605
As a result,

0:04:10.605,0:04:13.717
we suffer in solitude,

0:04:13.717,0:04:16.161
silenced by stigma.

0:04:17.598,0:04:23.028
We as Africans often respond[br]to mental health with distance,

0:04:23.028,0:04:24.720
ignorance,

0:04:24.720,0:04:26.242
guilt,

0:04:26.242,0:04:28.117
fear

0:04:28.117,0:04:29.924
and anger.

0:04:30.465,0:04:35.165
In a study conducted by Arboleda Flórez,

0:04:35.165,0:04:39.863
directly asking what[br]is the cause of mental illness,

0:04:39.863,0:04:45.072
34 percent of Nigerian respondents[br]cited drug misuse.

0:04:46.419,0:04:51.623
19 percent said divine wrath[br]and the will of God.

0:04:51.973,0:04:53.501
(Laughter)

0:04:53.678,0:04:56.357
12 percent --

0:04:56.357,0:04:59.513
witchcraft and spiritual posession.

0:04:59.896,0:05:04.480
But few cited other known[br]causes of mental illness ...

0:05:04.480,0:05:06.396
like genetics,

0:05:06.396,0:05:08.292
socio-economic status,

0:05:08.292,0:05:09.817
war,

0:05:09.817,0:05:11.335
conflict,

0:05:11.335,0:05:13.309
or the loss of a loved one.

0:05:13.971,0:05:17.144
The stigmatization against mental illness

0:05:17.144,0:05:21.428
often results in the ostracizing[br]and demonizing of sufferers.

0:05:22.599,0:05:26.618
Photojournalist Robin Hammond[br]has documented some of these abuses.

0:05:26.618,0:05:29.105
In Uganda,

0:05:29.105,0:05:31.528
in Somalia,

0:05:31.528,0:05:34.626
and here in Nigeria.

0:05:35.558,0:05:38.157
For me,

0:05:38.157,0:05:40.914
the stigma is personal.

0:05:42.294,0:05:44.975
In 2009,

0:05:44.975,0:05:48.283
I received a frantic call[br]in the middle of the night.

0:05:49.499,0:05:51.870
My best friend in the world --

0:05:51.870,0:05:57.032
a brilliant, philosophical,[br]charming, hip, young man --

0:05:57.032,0:05:59.743
was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

0:06:00.792,0:06:05.412
I witnessed some of the friends[br]we'd grown up with recoil.

0:06:07.416,0:06:09.983
I heard the snickers,

0:06:09.983,0:06:12.078
I heard the whispers.

0:06:12.359,0:06:14.959
"Did you hear he has gone mad?"

0:06:15.375,0:06:20.428
He [suffered through] derogatory,[br]demeaning commentary

0:06:20.428,0:06:22.424
about his condition --

0:06:22.424,0:06:26.424
words we would never say[br]about someone with cancer,

0:06:26.424,0:06:28.184
or someone with malaria.

0:06:28.764,0:06:32.664
Somehow when it comes to mental illness,

0:06:32.664,0:06:35.714
our ignorance eviscerates all empathy.

0:06:36.819,0:06:42.372
I stood by his side as his[br]community isolated him,

0:06:42.372,0:06:45.328
but our love never wavered.

0:06:45.948,0:06:49.027
Tacitly, I became passionate[br]about mental health.

0:06:50.062,0:06:52.717
Inspired by his plight,

0:06:52.717,0:06:56.063
I helped found the Mental Health[br]Special Interest Alumni Group

0:06:56.063,0:06:57.741
at my college.

0:06:57.741,0:07:01.221
And during my tenure as a resident[br]tutor in graduate school,

0:07:01.221,0:07:05.183
I supported many undergraduates[br]with their mental health challenges.

0:07:05.591,0:07:08.300
I saw African students struggle,

0:07:08.300,0:07:10.446
and unable to speak to anyone.

0:07:10.846,0:07:12.762
Even with this knowledge,

0:07:12.762,0:07:14.986
and with their stories in tow,

0:07:14.986,0:07:17.089
I in turn struggled,

0:07:17.089,0:07:21.545
and could not speak to anyone[br]when I faced my own anxiety,

0:07:21.545,0:07:25.507
so deep is our fear of being the mad man.

0:07:28.079,0:07:30.153
All of us --

0:07:30.153,0:07:33.238
but we Africans especially --

0:07:33.238,0:07:36.255
need to realize that our mental struggles

0:07:36.255,0:07:39.152
do not detract from our virility,

0:07:39.152,0:07:42.355
nor does our trauma taint our strength.

0:07:43.053,0:07:47.931
We need to see mental health[br]as important as physical health.

0:07:48.803,0:07:53.206
We need to stop suffering in silence.

0:07:54.378,0:07:57.765
We must stop stigmatizing disease,

0:07:57.765,0:08:00.445
and traumatizing the afflicted.

0:08:01.608,0:08:03.426
Talk to your friends.

0:08:04.003,0:08:05.857
Talk to you loved ones.

0:08:06.540,0:08:09.171
Talk to health professionals.

0:08:09.733,0:08:11.895
Be vulnerable.

0:08:11.895,0:08:17.118
Do so with the confidence[br]that you are not alone.

0:08:18.363,0:08:20.960
Speak up if you're struggling.

0:08:22.734,0:08:26.337
Being honest about how we feel

0:08:26.337,0:08:29.060
does not make us weak;

0:08:29.060,0:08:31.311
it makes us human.

0:08:31.914,0:08:36.460
It is time to end the stigma[br]associated with mental illness.

0:08:37.306,0:08:41.580
So the next time your hear "mental,"

0:08:41.580,0:08:44.443
do not just think of the madman ...

0:08:44.443,0:08:46.137
Think of me.

0:08:46.137,0:08:48.024
(Applause)

0:08:48.024,0:08:49.783
Thank you.

0:08:49.783,0:08:51.615
(Applause)