A sharp increase in self-harm and attempted suicide among young girls marks a deepening mental health emergency, with a government expert sounding the alarm that the true scope of the problem remains hidden.
Dr Joy Sue, consultant psychiatrist at the Ministry of Health and based at the Psychiatric Hospital in Black Rock, warned on Wednesday that these issues may represent only the surface of a much wider crisis affecting the nation’s young people, as males remain largely absent from those seeking assistance.
“One of the main reasons for this troubling mental health trend is the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which is only now becoming apparent,” Dr Sue explained.
She continued: “Young people cutting themselves is a response to a depressive state of mind. To tell you the truth, we have always seen a fair amount of cuttings, but it has increased. We had an increase in depressive anxiety [during COVID] for sure. And with that, we had an increase in persons who presented with cuttings and other forms of parasuicide or what we called self-harm, that is not necessarily meant to cause death.
“During COVID and post-COVID, those conditions increased. And the whole pandemic, and what came with the pandemic…meaning, the isolation, the online schooling, the lack of socialisation…we are only now seeing the fallout from that. Young people now have changed drastically from the way they behaved previously. I think a lot of it stems from that.”
Addicted to devices
Dr Sue also identified what she described as an “alarming” addiction to mobile devices as a pressing mental health issue requiring intervention.
She said: “There is a lot more of the digital world… It’s much more a part of their lives now. They are addicted to social media, and that can affect your self-esteem…. They are doing this social comparison thing…. For most people, it is something they put on, but social media is not real life. Or, they are getting bullied on social media. All of that is a part of it. They were isolated all of that time during COVID, they did not have the social support necessary, so they weren’t adapting.”
Extending her concern about social media’s pervasive influence, Dr Sue added: “Even lying down next to each other, people are on their devices.”
Silent struggle
Dr Sue revealed that the majority of new clients she now sees are young people ranging from their early teens to age 35, further underlining how social and emotional challenges are affecting an entire generation.
She highlighted the importance of the home environment: “They didn’t just get depressed overnight. A lot of them have a lot of trauma dating back from childhood.”
Eating disorders and gender disparities
Eating disorders were flagged by Dr Sue as another disturbing trend, especially among young females seeking help. “You are going to have poor health outcomes later on. With all of these NCDs [non-communicable diseases] that we are talking about, it is going to put them at risk.”
The psychiatrist clarified that eating disorders are rarely the primary concern brought to her by clients, but emerge as a secondary diagnosis discovered during consultations: “They are not seeing me for eating on its own. So they usually are seeing me because of some kind of depressive anxiety. Eating habits is something that is a secondary diagnosis that is discovered when I speak to them, but not necessarily the reason why they are presenting.”
Asked about males turning up with eating disorders, Dr Sue noted: “You don’t get as many males presenting for depressive anxiety. That is from most females.
“There are a variety of reasons. The fact is that it is more common [for females] because of hormonal reasons. But that’s not the only reason. It could be cultural too. It is not that males aren’t experiencing that…but culturally, how ready females are to come forward and access services for something like that…which is not what the act says about males culturally. So, if males are going through something like that, culture says: ‘Suck it up, I am man, be strong;’ and perhaps because the males aren’t coming forward, we are not getting complaints from the males because they simply aren’t talking about it.”
This, she suggested, means the nation may be unaware of the true picture of mental health in Barbados, with women always more likely to seek help: “We are always trying to get to be the ones to come forward. A lot of emphasis is placed on males.”
Dr Sue emphasised the risks of men not seeking support: “The eating disorders in the men are associated with the other things that females also have. Don’t forget the males are the ones that are disproportionate by suicide as well. All those factors could contribute to increased risks, not only for NCDs, but for more severe mental health outcomes.”
Troubled home environments, missing girls
Touching on the possible link between mental health issues originating at home and the phenomenon of girls going missing, Dr Sue reflected on her work at the Government Industrial School (GIS) female section.
“The persons who were the perpetrators were [getting away] scot-free, while these girls were locked up. I always used to think this was foolishness. They are punishing them when they are victims and their rebellious behaviour is because of something that happened to them and those persons who did these things, they aren’t punished.
“When they are finished with [the Government Industrial School], they got to go back into the same household because they don’t have anywhere else to go. They are back into the same problems that were never resolved. A vicious cycle.”
emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb
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