Meet Chinwe Nwosu a Mental Health Ambassador, Master Life Coach, Founder and Chief Executive of Andromagik. She enlightened us on the mental health being the integral part of our existence. It’s signs and symptoms.
1: Tell me about yourself?
My name is Chinwe E. Nwosu, a Mental Health Ambassador, Master Life Coach, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Andromagik Company. I am a business growth and sustainability enthusiast with experience in Human Resource and Administration Management, Customer Satisfaction and Experience, Fund Recovery, Business Development, Marketing and Sales. A Social Entrepreneur who is highly passionate about identifying institutional voids and actively devising possible ways to fill those voids. A Thought Leader driven by creativity, spontaneity and quest for innovation.
2: What made you choose to be a mental health advocate?
It’s a lot of reason that drove me into advocating for mental health, starting from the fact that experience teaches us, meaning I’ve been a victim of mental health distortion. I’ve had friends in my circle who had gone through the same, some more evident and intense than others. Sadly, it hits us all but we don’t even know what it means, so we assume it’s just part of life. Another reason is that we don’t even take it seriously in this part of the world. When we hear a lad jump off 3MB, we just assume it’s our “villagers”.
3: What does mental health mean to you?
Mental health is generally, emotional and psychological well being. You take care of your body to avoid ailments, you take care of your mind to avoid ailment too. If I would put it in it’s simplest form, it is sanity to me. It is an integral part of our existence, if not the most integral part, it affects how you treat yourself, people around you, how you react and counter react, how you act… right about everything.
4: Is it happiness or the absence of happiness?
Presence of a sound mental health is pure happiness, extreme joy and satisfaction, of course you can imagine what it’s absence would be.
5: What are your thoughts regarding the signs and symptoms of mental health issue?
Majority of the signs and symptoms of mental health issues are very insignificant at first. We often think it is until there’s an obvious sign but the truth is, mental disorder is a farther/extreme sign of mental health issue. Various mental health issues have numerous different symptoms. For instance depression might lead you to withdraw from the society, cause you to lose interest in right about everything that makes you tick initially. Anxiety might start off by feeding on your fears, cause you unhealthy sleeping partners. Panic attack might get you breathing heavily from thinking of things you cannot even pinpoint. Biplolar could make you happy this second and sad the next, for untraceable reasons.. extreme highs and lows.
6: Have you ever experienced a terrible occurrence that has impacted you significantly?
Yes, absolutely, we all have had these experiences even when we don’t get to find a name tag to it or wish to accept it. Whether it is the lost of a loved one, or a relationship, gory experiences, work stress, unhealthy expectations, and so on.
7: Do feelings of anxiety or discomfort around others bother you?
If I do get this question rightly, then I’d say making conscious efforts to keep my mental health in check has helped.
8: Most Nigerians aren’t conversant with mental health issues, some are still uninformed especially those in the rural area who couldn’t access social media, how do you think this gap can be filled?
It’s not exactly a function of urban or rural area, in this part of the world, we don’t take it seriously. Truth be told, we need more outreaches, we need more ambassadors, we need more support groups, we need more safe spaces. Andromagik Company has started it’s bit but we sure can never do it alone. Let’s have programs, let’s go on trips to the safer rural areas, let’s educate the younger ones first in schools, let them translate it to their parents, let us just… never stop talking about it.
9: What do you believe is important for anyone to be aware of if they know someone with this mental health issue?
Please, first of all, listen to the words people don’t even speak. Listen, pay attention and please do not judge. If you cannot help them to get calm at the earlier stage, please SIGNPOST them to the right people.
