Newsletter September 2024

 

5 myths about antidepressants debunked

We are unnecessarily scared of taking antidepressants. Think about it as a matter of quality of life. Besides, depression hurts. You will take medication without hesitation for something else that hurts your body. In simple terms, your brain “is no longer responding to everyday life” the way it should. The solution: you need professional care. Preferably, the two-pronged approach: talk therapy through a psychologist, and medical treatment and medication through a psychiatrist. In this article, five myths surrounding antidepressant medication are debunked by a clinical psychologist who is also a neurobiologist – read more here.

 

 

That s-word that we need to overcome: Stigma

One of the biggest hurdles in treating mental health conditions is the big bad wolf of stigma. Whereas you would not hesitate to complain about a physical illness and go to your physician for treatment, you rather ignore the classical symptoms of mental illnesses such as depression or anxiety. The fact is, they will not go away. Instead, they will worsen and cost you not only your quality of life but can develop into a life-threatening condition. Read more about overcoming stigma here and here.

 

 

HOPEtober is around the corner!

And to help break that wall of stigma and silence, join us on our annual Hope Hike. This year it is on Sunday 27 October, and you can either join in person on the Delvera wine estate (corner of Muldersvlei Road and the R44, Stellenbosch; described as an “agri-village winelands with lots of little shops”), or you can walk wherever you are! As a warm-up, there are the Cape Town Marathon’s various events on 19 and 20 October, where Ithemba highlights the importance of mental health. You can still contact ithembafoundation@mweb.co.za for arrangements for your entry – Ithemba will pay your entry fee in full. For entries for the Hope Hike, go to https://entries.onsite-events.co.za/events/81064.

 

 

Doomscrolling yourself into more gloom

Doomscrolling, or doomsurfing, is when you scroll into deep, deep rabbit holes on the internet, following stories becoming even more negative, sad, or even scarier than the ones before. The habit, which is addictive, can affect your mental health as well as your physical health as you morph into a coach potato par excellence while tunnelling your way towards even more doom and gloom. The habit can be broken. One way is to simply disable notifications on your phone. Read more here.

 

 

The new addiction: Gambling

You cannot miss it: the gambling adverts come rolling across our TV screens, rolling around the advertising billboards around sports fields, and even painted on those sports fields. They are now mainstream, and all encourage you to gamble, because, indeed, the gambling companies are actually sponsoring those teams. In a negative economic climate such as ours, it doesn’t take much to convince someone to just “play” a little. But the thing is, it will become addictive. And the more you “play”, unfortunately, the more you lose. And you end up where you do not want to be: starting to sell household goods to feed your addiction. By then you must know the one-way street is a cul de sac. There should be much more protest – and protection – against this new addiction taking hold of the nation. One major British newspaper has gone so far as to ban all gambling advertising. In South Africa, it seems gambling is encouraged every which way you turn. Read more about gambling addiction here; for support, go to this website.

 

 

Sextortion on the rise among teens in South Africa

What is sextortion? It is the crime of coercing someone into sending explicit photos of themselves, which are then used to blackmail them. In her recent Daily Maverick newsletter, journalist Neesa Moodley wrote how sextortion among tweens, teens and young adults has risen lately. The social media law expert Emma Sadleir says she gets up to five calls a day from frantic parents. This is her advice to parents:

• Deactivate social media profiles immediately.
• Keep your child’s phone with you all the time.
• Create a Google alert for the child’s name, so that you are immediately notified if any content is posted online.
• Use Take It Down to help you monitor the web.
• If your child is older than 18, you can use StopNCII.org.

(Source: Neesa Moodley Newsletter, 12 August 2024)

 

 

 

Perinatal maternal mental health

Ithemba is highlighting the importance of mental health for pregnant and postpartum women this year, as it is clear we need to break the silence and the stigma around mothers struggling to cope. Following is the third contribution from the Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP) at the University of Cape Town. The PMHP humanises and normalises perinatal mental health, helping mothers who are suffering in silence because of the fear of “coming out”. Says Tyla Prinsloo, Mental Health Counsellor at the PMHP: “At the beginning of last month, we commemorated World Breastfeeding Week from 1 to 7 August. Then, on 9 August, we celebrated Women’s Day, with all of August celebrated as Women’s Month. These commemorations remind us to connect, support and invest in community. For maternal mental health, connection and community are meaningful remedies to isolation that may befall women during the period shortly after the birth of their babies. This transition commonly focuses on the baby’s wellbeing, while the mother’s wellbeing may be neglected. Moreover, with society’s fervent pursuit of independence and individuality, community is lost. Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins are hormones that contribute to wellbeing, and these hormones thrive when people are well cared for, especially breastfeeding mothers.”