I have seen many times in my cultural community and have experienced first hand, that mental illness and depression is often viewed as taboo or just laziness or attention seeking.
And when something severe does happen we are taken to Imans(Priests) who claim we are being possessed by a jinn or our families have been cursed due to jealousy or Lord knows what else.
Which in actual reality doesn't help the situation because it only opens doors to anger and malice and separation among the people in our lives.
There are times when these rituals in exorcising the demons does help bring a much needed peace but it doesn't last. Two or three months down the line the cycle repeats itself. Then we are told again that "people don't want to see us happy? or these things happen because our imaan is weak. Leaving the family history of trauma, grief, sorrow and anger unexposed and readily available to be passed down on the next vulnerable person. We pray helplessly believing that the cause is merely a lack of faith or a trial of God testing our faith in him, not realizing that there is an actual problem deep within our psyche.
Sometimes trauma hides itself as delusions. Sometimes abuse disguises itself as discipline. Sometimes rape introduces itself as love. Sometimes a chemical imbalance or allergy disguises itself as depression, psychosis, schizophrenia.
I personally feel that a lot of these issues are left ignored by our religious communities, citing everything as the work of the devil or lack of faith in God. Which leaves many of us turning away from God thinking that he would rather have us pray and worship him night and day and not feel, think. talk, open and heal.
There are many different sides to cultural communities, but the majority of us are exposed to the side that tells you not to complain - be grateful - and pray, instead of asking us what is the real issue going on underneath and how can it be fixed.
For most of my life I felt like a shadow of myself, believing that there is no hope for me. Confused as to what could be the problem. Forgetting the nightmares and pain and trauma. Walking around believing that a jinn has claimed my being and if I don't pray religiously it will possess my body and mind and eventually soul.
Never have I heard someone say to me that there is a deep psychological issue that needs to be addressed. Instead all I got was, "iemand moet vir jou uitmantra (you need to be exorcised).
What I would like happen in our communities today is creating a safe space where we can go to, to openly talk about these issues. to teach our parents how to recognize the signs in their children. To teach our children how to speak up without feeling afraid of rejection, to teach our parents that discipline is love and not abuse of authority.
We need to teach each other to voice our opinions without fear of judgement. To call the problem out for what it really is and not mask it simply by citing spiritual affliction or lack of faith.
I'm not saying that jinn or demons don't exist. I don't deny their existence. I am arguing that compared to mental illness, delusions, depression, dissociation, it is far down the line and should only be a probability to explore when all else fails. The only demons to fear are not the ones we see in horror movies but in the minds of man passing down vital information that could either help us heal or control the way we think.
Instead of inciting fear into our hearts we need to talk more openly about God and his love and mercy, and leave his punishment and wrath to those who don't care about humanity at all.
Instead of fighting over who is right or who is wrong, let us try to help each other, understand each other, learn from each other, so we can all return to the greater whole.
Human beings make mistakes. Huge, unbelievable, horrifying mistakes. But underneath all that chaos and insecurity, hatred, malice are souls seeking to find peace and understanding,
The more we deny the pain that lies in the heart of man, the greater the illusion we live in.
