
Films Review | Jun 15,2019
December 19 , 2020
By Eden Sahle ( Eden Sahle is founder and CEO of Yada Technology Plc. She has studied law with a focus on international economic law. She can be reached at edensah2000@gmail.com. )
Sometimes our social systems have a slanted negative view of others that injures them almost beyond repair. Unfortunately, contributing to this are usually the family members of the very people who should do the nurturing and protecting.
A victim of such social scarring is a tutor I had in high school.
When my father came to know him, he was a nervous man struggling to overcome setbacks in his life. His parents had suddenly gotten divorced. Shortly after, his father remarried. Hurt by this and unable to focus, he was fired from his job at Addis Abeba University. As he was desperately looking to support himself, my father offered him a job as my tutor.
He accepted, and we met daily after school. He was brilliant. I enjoyed solving math and physics puzzles with him.
Even then, it was clear that his sadness was eating him alive. It was obvious to anyone but him. He did not just refuse help but also thought he was proving his worth to his family. He spoke about the verbal abuse he gets from them, how they saw him as a failure and a burden. He did not have friends and family that he could count on. He hated himself, his life.
His mental and physical health was deteriorating before our eyes. His situation affected his everyday life, influencing how he responded to stress, how he made decisions and how he interacted with others. He lost his sense of purpose in life. Eventually, a year after he started working as my tutor, he stopped coming. We checked with his family; they told us he stopped living with them and that they do not know his whereabouts.
Over a decade and a half later - a few weeks ago - I saw him sitting on the streets, talking loudly and crying heavily. I could not believe my eyes. The respectful, intelligent young man who came to my home daily to help me excel academically now sleeps on the streets. His worn-out clothes were covered with dirt, and the plastic bottle he had with him reeked of alcohol. That reserved and calm man now slurs at passersby in Bole.
I approached and greeted him. He gazed at me for long without saying anything; then he quickly ran away. That was the last I have seen of him.
The alcohol abuse made sense. Substance abuse is linked to chronic stress and poverty. Lack of proper parental support, risk awareness, healthcare and community organisations lead to alternative stress coping mechanisms that do more damage – it was how he had slipped through the cracks.
Substance abuse can have a devastating impact on health, family and society. The consequence leads to a distorted psychological, physical and mental well-being of the user. From decreased self-esteem to social isolation to serious physical injuries, drugs and alcohol are significant health hazards. The immediate effects here can potentially be remedied when substance abuse stops, but the mental and social trauma can be permanent.
In life, some level of trauma is unavoidable for everyone. We all get hurt one way or another, although the intensity may significantly differ. It is also the case that the age at which a person experiences trauma influences how big of an impact it will have on them. Trauma experienced early in life has a bigger chance of causing problems throughout a person's life. The younger the victim, the more devastating outcome the crisis brings.
Mentally unwell people are not mentally and physically ready to support themselves in the social systems “normal” people have erected. This is a reflection of the fact that, while people with disorders such as schizophrenia are not less normal or abled, they will inevitably have a hard time coping with the prevailing social environment.
In Ethiopia, there is very little understanding of this. As a result, parents provide little emotional support to their children, as many are in great financial and emotional distress themselves. But it does not mean families and society at large should neglect its responsibility.
Solving the problem from its source is vital. It starts with parents, who themselves should be provided with support in the form of civic organisations and government institutions.
PUBLISHED ON
Dec 19,2020 [ VOL
21 , NO
1077]
Films Review | Jun 15,2019
Sunday with Eden | Aug 16,2020
Sunday with Eden | Oct 09,2021
View From Arada | Dec 25,2021
Covid-19 | Oct 13,2020
Verbatim | Apr 06,2019
Radar | Feb 12,2022
Radar | Aug 22,2020
Fortune News | Aug 24,2019
International Stories | Apr 07,2020
Photo Gallery | 53001 Views | May 06,2019
Fortune News | 45945 Views | Jul 18,2020
Photo Gallery | 44739 Views | Apr 26,2019
Fortune News | 44717 Views | Sep 01,2021
November 27 , 2021
Against my will, I have witnessed the most terrible defeat of reason and the most sa...
November 13 , 2021
Plans and reality do not always gel. They rarely do in a fast-moving world. Every act...
October 16 , 2021 . By HAWI DADHI
Residing in a country with no capital market, an organised marketplace for trading se...
August 28 , 2021 . By HAWI DADHI
The streets of Addis Abeba are as varied as they are many, although too many of them have yet to be named. From the narrow alleyways of the...
June 25 , 2022
It is not the best of times to be in charge of governance in Ethiopia, whether at the...
June 18 , 2022
Some of Ethiopia's economic policymakers may take solace from realising that inflatio...
June 11 , 2022
The stereotype many people have of parliamentarians is as clueless seat fillers who exist to rubber stamp legislative bi...
June 4 , 2022
It was an institution confident in its mission, capabilities and progress that was on...
June 25 , 2022 . By TSION HAILEMICHAEL
Regional state officials and cement distribution agents are in an uproar over new rul...
June 25 , 2022 . By BERSABEH GEBRE
Mayor Adanech Abiebie has won the approval of the Addis Abeba City Cabinet to give re...
The Addis Abeba City Administration is undergoing an extensive reshuffling leading th...
June 25 , 2022 . By RUTH TAYE
Dashen Bank has rolled out a data centre for nearly a quarter of a billion Birr. Installed by two local firms, the centr...
Put your comments here