{"id":91,"date":"2017-04-05T23:42:43","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T23:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/?p=91"},"modified":"2019-10-20T20:20:05","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T20:20:05","slug":"depression-in-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/depression-in-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"Depression in Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Dr Manhal Zarroug, Psychiatrist<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Depression in Sudan is a contentious topic that is a fluid concept; a concept that morphs into more socially acceptable difficulties.\u00a0It has many descriptions consistent with the diagnostic criteria defining depression, however it is rarely labelled as such due to the stigma attached. In a society that strives to define itself through religion, difficulties experienced in depression are perceived as a \u2018weakness in faith\u2019 or \u2018tests from God\u2019 that must be remedied by prayer and dedication.\u00a0Depression is also described in varied manners depending on age groups, tribal and ethnic groups as well as rural versus urban areas.\u00a0 Older generations refer to it as \u2018fatigue from life\u2019 with vague somatic symptoms, commonly described as \u2018a clenching\u2019 or \u2018inner ache\u2019 that has no clear cause.\u00a0 There is also the description of \u2018irritation\/intolerance\u2019 to describe the social isolation and neglect stemming from depressive symptoms.\u00a0 The younger generations commonly use the term \u2018stress\u2019 and \u2018worry\u2019 for depressive symptoms, and readily link their difficulties to overwhelming social difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>Depression is overwhelmingly underreported and undertreated within all age groups, secondary to stigma in most cases.\u00a0 Mental illness is a stigma that is carried by the individual and the entire family, in both urban and rural settings, despite efforts made to reduce stigma by religious leaders and within religious institutions.\u00a0 Traditional healing practices (through faith healers) are common despite on-going attempts to reduce the practice.\u00a0 The use of biological interventions (antidepressants) is prevalent in the younger generations who have access to psychiatric care, however this is primarily in urban areas.\u00a0Psychological interventions, including CBT for depression, are available interventions that are self-funded, and consequently accessed by a limited portion of the population; again, mainly in urban areas.\u00a0Deficits resulting from functional impairment in depression are usually compensated by family and social networks, and not overtly attributed to depressive disorder.<\/p>\n<p>Depression in Sudan is an unnamed ailment that is experienced and seen, yet rarely acknowledged.\u00a0Access to mental health care continues to be a challenge to those without access to services or funds.<\/p>\n<p><b>Telephone helpline Befrienders Khartoum:<\/b> (249) 11-555-253<\/p>\n<h6>\u00a9 2017 Volunteering and International Psychiatry Special Interest Group, all rights reserved. Reproduction by permission only.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dr Manhal Zarroug, Psychiatrist &nbsp; Depression in Sudan is a contentious topic that is a fluid concept; a concept that morphs into more socially acceptable difficulties.\u00a0It has many descriptions consistent with the diagnostic criteria defining depression, however it is rarely labelled as such due to the stigma attached. In a society that strives to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,32],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depression-around-the-world","tag-depression","tag-sudan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8AOGr-1t","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":659,"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globallyminded.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}