DEPRESSION WITHIN OUT COMMUNNITY BY STANMORE JAFFERY'S
17 September 2009 00:48
Aoodhubillah
Bismillah
My community Asalaamunaylaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatu
I was advised to start this speech off with a bang. To provide something that will make people think when they hear it. So here it is - According to statistics there are around 200 people – estimating that there are 1000 people in the mosque in total - in the mosque at the moment 75 people in this gents hall and 125 in the ladies hall that are going through depression. 200 people. And of those 200 people there are a percentage of them who will go home tonight and think about suicide.
Several months ago at the quarterly CoEJ Youth Leaders Meeting – a meeting of all Youth Leaders within the Council of European Jamaats - we discussed the issues facing our community. On our list were matters such as drugs and smoking male chauvinism leading to female apathy fringe members and fringe youth, but the issue at the top was that of depression.
Depression within our community is a very serious issue and its one that the CoEJ Youth Desk and the CoEJ Health Board are working together on. During this Ramadhan and afterwards there are and will be youth giving speeches on depression across all jamaats.
And this is what my talk is about - Depression within our community.
It is important here to define what I mean by ‘Depression’. The term ‘depression’ is used to refer to 2 cases - the first is an external short lived feeling of being down, and the second is a more intense long-term internal feeling of constant sadness. The former is a feeling which everybody may feel however it is the latter that I refer to when I say ‘Depression’ and to which Doctors more commonly refer to as Clinical Depression.
Please note - depression is different from just feeling unhappy or sad. Everyone feels sad from time to time. However depression is more intense it lasts longer – sometimes week if not months if not years - and has a greater negative impact on a person's life. It has been diagnosed as a severe disease and if undealt with its impact can result in suicide. This is its severest form.
And its for this and many other reasons that we as Youth Leaders are looking to address this issue within our communities starting first through this speech. There are three aims to this presentation which inshAllah I can address and which we together can inshAllah achieve.
The first of these is called Acknowledgement.
The first thing before we look at anything or even begin to think of anything is that we have to as both individuals families and a closeknit community acknowledge this illness. Not only the concept of depression – that it is a recognized clinical disease that affects both the physical and more importantly emotional health of an individual – but also that it happens. It exists. It takes place in the world and more specifically within our community and most probably within our families as well.
Whilst we were writing this speech there were two things that we came across that we found amazing.
The first was our research. I remember coming across some statistics that were absolutely shocking and we have written some of them up on the screens now. These statistics were all obtained from scholarly Medical or Psychiatric journals or reports for the UK. (pause for audience to read slide) Around 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health disorder in the any 1 year - 1 in 4 - and this is much more likely to occur in minority ethnic communities than in the white population. In terms of depression itself we read that around 12%-25% of the population are likely to go through it during their lifetime. 12%-25%. Look around you look at the four people sitting around you. This means that at least 1 of you would be going through depression. Would you know? Would we know how to deal with it?
The second thing that we found was to do with our culture. Do you know that in Gujerati and Kuchi there is no word for depression the closest we can get in Gujerati is manshik udashinta - but then that’s high Gujerati and most of us have not heard the phrase. The most common word to use is ‘munjaro’. In actual fact however the word ‘munjaro’ translates to more of a long-term psychotic illness than to depression. Imagine not a single word in our culture or language can be used to describe ‘depression’. It is likely that having no words in our language has contributed to the fact that depression is not recognised as an illness within our community. But this has to change.
It isn’t a sign of weakness and it isn’t anything to be ashamed of. It can and does affect anyone. From the likes of Sir Isaac Newton to Mahatma Gandhi from Stephen Hawkings J.P Morgan to Queen Elizabeth – they have all gone through it. Go through our religious Ulema go through our history and you will find people great people who have gone through depression in their life times. It is not an unislamic thing. It is not a shameful thing and it can be due to a number of reasons.
This brings us on to the second aim of this presentation -
Having now acknowledged depression I would like to now address some of the common causes and symptoms of depression.
Depression can take place for a number of reasons and can be due to a number of external causes. I have only endeavoured here to list some of the most common of these however please do note that there are most probably an infinite number more.
(pause to allow audience to read the screens)
Postnatal depression or PND is very common in mothers who have just given birth. Its estimated that around 1 in 7-10 mothers experience it. Its very common for new mothers to experience a period of ‘depressive mood’ after giving birth and this does range in severity from a mild mood disturbance to a much more severer form of PND and if untreated can become ‘Depression’ itself. Its therefore very important for fathers to take care and be on the lookout for the symptoms of depression so they can help support their wives.
When I was at school there were several people I knew who developed a form of depression. They were under immense pressure with exams UCAS and his family life. We don’t often understand the pressure students go through and these pressures don’t start from A-levels when youth are applying for university. They start from year 6 year 4 and most probably earlier. Its so important for us as a community to recognise the pressures the youth go through understand them and support them.
In terms of symptoms these can come in many different forms. (pause to allow audience to read slides) I have tried to categorise them as best as possible. Its important that we look out for these symptoms not only in ourselves but in others as well. Many times people may have fallen into a depression and unless we can recognize this first we cannot come out of it and recover and therefore we risk the danger of it getting much more severe and worse.
There are also symptoms of the Body. (pause to read screen)
And there are also symptoms of the mind. (pause to read screen)
We have talked about acknowledgement and we have discussed the symptoms and how to recognise it. Now let us progress to the third and final aim of this presentation. That is to outline some positive steps we can take to bring ourselves out of depression.
The first and most important step when treating depression is recognition. We must first recognise that we are going through this illness for only after acknowledging what we are going through can we truly proceed to deal with it. After this pay a visit to your GP who may refer you to speak to a practise counsellor or to other local ethnic groups who you maybe more comfortable with. They may refer you to a specialist or they may refer you to take anti-depressants. All these options are open and it is up to the patient to choose which service they would prefer. Further its important to emphasise that these sessions would be entirely in the strictest confidence.
As well as this its important for us to recognise that we are blessed to have a faith that we cling to. Talk to Allah (swt) about how you feel is very beneficial thing. Islam isn’t ritualistic and so this doesn’t mean it has to be on the musala after a 2 rakaat salaa with our hands up in prayer. It can be whilst you are lying down when you are in the car or on the train. Even whilst you are eating.
Other positive steps are to take our mind off our troubles - Read a book read the Quran. Keep up physical activity – this is very important. Keeping ourselves physically active and well is linked to our physical health as much as it is to our mental health as well. Play football or go swimming. Go running or start a new sport such as climbing!
The most important thing that we can do as family and friends in supporting them is listening. Just listen to eachother – it does incredibly help. Furthermore avoid ridiculous and stupid phrases such as ‘Pull Yourself Together’. They do so much more harm and damage than good! Ultimately encourage and support them.
Before I close I want to encourage you to read up about depression. Find out more about it. Stanmore Jafferys volunteers are going to be by the doors of the gents and ladies handing out these blue leaflets that were created by CoEJ and other postcards from Muslim Youth Helpline. Please thank them take them and read them when you get home. This speech will be uploaded to both the Stanmore Jafferys website – www.jafferys.org - the Hujjat website – www.hujjat.org - and the CoEJ website – www.coej.org for your reference.
Let us pray that we are able to address this concern within our communities and that those that are suffering through depression come out of it and that we are given the strength to develop and progress our community to serve the 12th Imam (as). Aameen.
Thankyou
