Folks, the official government statistics indicate that significant sections of our 45.9 million people are mentally ill.

According to Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), 12 percent of “persons aged 10 years and above are with probable psychological distress.” Afflicted with “suicidality, psychosis, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, and bipolar affective disorder.”

This morning, however, I happened on a blog post titled: “A happiness inventory”, in which the author, Joyful Stephanie, shared her personal journey with mental illness. She wrote:

“One of my diagnoses is Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). I feel emotions intensely and they can take longer to pass. Hours, sometimes days. BPD is often misdiagnosed for Bipolar Disorder (BD). BPD emotional highs and lows seem excessive; so much so, before proper diagnoses, Michael sometimes commented how my mood swings seemed bipolar.”

This got me thinking, about whether what is categorized in the UBOS statistics as persons with BD are actually persons with BPD.

Whatever the case, folks, we do have a serious problem of mental illness among us that isn’t getting the requisite public attention. How else can we explain what happened in the Capital City yesterday?

And by the way, the national average of 12 percent does not hold true throughout the Country. In our geographic area of operation, Greater Northern Region (GNR), the proportion of the population with mental illness is higher.

It is an average of 13.5 percent of persons aged 10 years and above among the GNR’s 14.8 million people are mentally ill. Taken separately, by sub-regions, the proportions are disturbingly even the more high:

• 16.4 percent in Teso, the constituency of Right Honorable Speaker Anita Among, who is the Woman Member of Parliament representing Bukedea District, which is in Teso. And of the Vice President, Her Excellency Jessica Rose Epel Alupo, who is the Woman Member of Parliament representing Katakwi District, also in Teso; a sub-region composed of ten districts.
• 15.7 percent in Bukedi, the constituency of the flamboyant Hon. Derrick Orone, Member of Parliament representing Gogonyo Constituency in Pallisa District, which is one of the seven districts of Bukedi.
• 14.2 percent in West Nile, the constituency of a medical doctor, Hon. Charles Ayume, Member of Parliament representing Koboko Municipality Constituency in Koboko District., which is one of the nine districts of West Nile.
• 12.8 percent in Acholi, the constituency of the former Leader of Opposition, Hon. Betty Aol Ochan, who is the Woman Member of Parliament representing Gulu City in Gulu District, which is one of the eight districts of Acholi.
• 12.7 percent in Lango, the constituency of the Minister of Health, a medical doctor, Hon. Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero, who is the Woman Member of Parliament representing Lira City, which is one of the nine districts of Lango.
• 12.2 percent in Madi, the constituency of the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Leader of Government Business, 84-years old elder, retired military officer, Hon. Moses Ali, representing East Moyo Constituency in Adjumani District, which is one of the three districts of Madi.
• 10.7 percent in Karamoja, the constituency of the Minister of the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity in the Office of the President, social worker, Hon. Rose Lilly Akello, who is the Woman Member of Parliament representing Karenga District, which is one of the eight districts of Karamoja.

My fellow Ugandans, there is general consensus that yesterday was a dark day in our Country. A possible explanation for it is the state of mental illness among our population.

When men and women in uniform, whom we should run to protect us, became those whom journalists doing their jobs had to run away from for dear life. The footage is extremely disturbing.

Major media houses took the responsible decision to pull their teams away from the site of danger, the Kawempe by-elections. I remain traumatized and can’t shake the thoughts questioning: how did we get here? How did we get here folks? How?

I am of the Generation-X, whose parents’ generation received our current president with hope for a great future for us their children. In our childhood, our parents regaled us with stories of the past, before him, and how they believed him, when he said he and his army were not simply a change of guard.

The media loved him and told mostly a single story of him as the messiah who has come to save us. The biggest praise showered him, was his ability and resolve to keep the military in the barracks and on war fronts; and off the day-to-day lives of the people. We loved him for it.

And on those rare necessary occasions when the military interacted with the people, they were to do so with utmost respect and cordially; that is what we were told and, indeed we felt. But along the way, things changed. How did we get here?

May we find the answers to the question: “how did we get here?” And the wisdom to redirect course, so that as Joyful Stephanie, we may once more, be “extraordinary happy,” as we were during our childhood in the mid-1980s, when our parents welcomed our current president with hope!

For more insights:

Access and read the “National Population and Housing Census 2024 Final Report – Volume 1 (Main)”

Read “A Happiness Inventory”

Read “ACME condemns brutality on journalists in Kawempe by-election”

Read “Security excesses in Kawempe North by-elections condemned”

Image source Publicist