Africa is one of those countries which was colonized for years and years
and continuous war one after another made life even harder, leaving them being
severely traumatized. The most common mental disorder in the war-related area
has been found to be a post-traumatic disorder (PTSD) at 39.9%. Along with
PTSD, suicidal behavior, depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse were also
found. One of the most pathetic consequences of war is to forcefully live a
refugee life which lead to mental disorders. One of the studies of a random
sample of 3,339 refugees done in the west Nile region which also included
Ugandans and Sudanese found criteria for a DSM-IV PTSD diagnosis accounting for
31.6% of males and, 40.1% of the females. Also, in a sample of 2091 people who
survived the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, 24.8% showed symptoms of PTSD. This paper
will focus on more different parts of African countries which were war-affected
areas and the kind of effects and the level of severity it holds. This paper
will also try to explore if any treatment measures were taken to resolve
the disorder (Njenga et al., 1970).
When it comes to
war, the most common marginalized community includes women and low-income
people who don’t only face mental trauma but physical pain too. One of the
prevalent key features of any war is rape trauma. Women and young girls who
already lost their families, became refugees, faced starvation, and medical
treatment, they faced extra adversity when they were repeatedly gang raped.
This trauma was first brought to notice by Burgess and Holmstrom in Uganda and
other parts of the war country. However, it is miserable to notice that
victim women were afraid to speak about it which is still seen due to cultural
stigma, not being accepted again by the family members, especially the husband.
This leads to many suicide attempts, depression, amnesia, lower mild
weaknesses, and also can be affected by HIV/AIDS. For this particular PTSD, an
antidepressant, prazosin which is anti-arousal, and culturally sensitive trauma-focused
CBT is found to be a useful tool for the treatments ( Musisi et al., 2020)
Moving forward,
once one or a community is traumatized by war, recovering becomes the next most
crucial step to be concerned about. The events like this if not treated properly
can last forever and that will make traumatized people life a curse. Even after
witnessing continuous killings and massacres for last 48 years up to 2007,
those traumatized by it were not allowed to tell what happened which was
referred in symbolic language due to political reasons. This lead Truth
and Reconciliation Commission to be mixed of both fear and hope, and not being
enough successful to help until and unless victims came and share. One of the
war-affected areas is the African great lakes region, where initiatives are
being taken and guiding the local community to their strengths of reshaping the
damage and helping each other to overcome the trauma. This project is known as
Centre Ubuntu, whose objective is to carry out more research on trauma by being
in close connection with traumatized people and activities guide in organizing
local community activities for development. This project was successful
in places like Itaba, Ruhororo, Ruziba, where mass massacres and other
types of violence happened. People after a few sessions started forming local
associations and strengthening each other in any way they could. After the
local intervention was taken, 81% of positive were observable. This project
also provided counseling six days per week to an individual and use Narrative
Theatre to deal with people suffering from trauma (Ntakarutimana, 2008).
Furthermore, the
study done on East -African people who survived the war found them to be atincreased risk of PTSD after the event had happened. This society included
Northern Ugandan people where the belief in spirit possessions was highly
practiced and this led to misjudgment of symptoms and dysfunctionality of
mental disorders like PTSD. Survivors who returned to their community
struggled with reintegration. The survivors were stigmatized due to many
misconceptions about mental disorders (PTSD) and disease transmission
(HIV/AIDS). Stigmatization and had to go through ill treatment. In the worst
cases, victims were partially blamed for the violence experienced. All this
stigmatization played a direct role in the increased risk of post-conflict
PTSD. Stigmatization showed a high prevalence of PTSD in women as they
faced social exclusion after the return from captivity due to conceived
children from rape. This increased the severity of PTSD symptoms, resulting in
higher symptom scores than men, and it stayed the same even after therapy.
Women still showed higher symptoms than men, making the therapy to be less
successful (Schneider et al., 2018).
Lastly, witnessing the consequences of the trauma mentioned above about
Africa and how gender plays a significant role was eye-opening. This could help
explain the reason why this country lacks development compared to other
countries. War and trauma can be one of the biggest contributing reasons for
not having consistent good health care facility access, and hindering many
other spectrums of development that are required for individual growth as well
the community growth. More several majors like Centre Ubuntu, Truth and
Reconciliation can help grow the population faster (Ntakarutimana, 2008. It
will help treat PTSD even after war has ended to reduce misconceptions about
mental health and more inclusion of stigmatized individuals or communities. The
study could be further stretched, and current research can be done to check the
condition and prevalent of trauma from victims of postwar. If they are still
stigmatized who returned from captivity, it would be important to know
the impact on their current family or generation because before society, family
plays a crucial role that has a powerful influence over an
individual.
References
Musisi, S.,
Kinyand, E. (February, 2020) Long-term impact of war, Civil War, and
persecution in civilian populations-conflict and post-traumatic stress in
African communities. Frontiers in psychiatry. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32158407/
Njenga, F.,
Nguithi, A. N., & Kang'ethe, R. N. (1970, January 1). War and mental disorders
in Africa.: Semantic scholar. undefined. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/War-and-mental-disorders-in-Africa.-Njenga-Nguithi/39afc31f65b3ec567e9f4df22370a8d51e2b4a76
Ntakarutimana,
Emmanuel. ( July, 2008). The challenge of recovering from war trauma in the
African Great Lakes ... (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2022, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232198483_The_challenge_of_recovering_from_war_trauma_in_the_African_great_lakes_region_an_experience_from_Centre_Ubuntu_in_the_Projet_Colombe_Network
Schneider A;Conrad
D;Pfeiffer A;Elbert T;Kolassa IT;Wilker S;, A. (n.d.).(October, 2018). Stigmatization
is associated with increased PTSD risk after traumatic stress and diminished
likelihood of spontaneous remission-A study with East-African conflict
survivors. Frontiers in psychiatry. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30364089/
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