Mental well-being describes a person’s mental state, how they are feeling and how well they can cope with day to day life, this state of being is not static as it can change daily, monthly or even yearly.
Taking time to oneself, being surrounded by good people, exercise, breaking monotony, avoiding alcohol and drug abuse, setting realistic goals, meditating and volunteering are some of the things to do to be mentally healthy.
PHOEBE Zimbabwe, a specialist women’s NGO run by mental ill-health survivors, works with mental ill-health survivors, sent out a tweet that,
“If you have good mental health wellbeing you are able to feel relatively confident in yourself, feel and express a range of emotions, build and maintain positive relationships with other people and feel you can contribute to the community you live in and cope with the stresses of life”
The organisation is committed to fighting violence against women and girls, advocating for women’s rights, and supporting women and girls to improve their quality of life. They specifically support women and children who suffer from mental health issues, among others, according to their website.
Daily lives for a number of people are filled with stress from a number of things, from the moment they wake up till they go back to sleep. Others struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle mentally when pressure from their environment overwhelms them. This is something that needs to be addressed and talked about so as to help them cope.
Living in Zimbabwe has not made it any easier as there are a lot of triggers for mental ill-health. Socio-economic, personal, environmental factors have led to a number of individuals to struggle with mental health and in turn causing them to, for example, have poor relationships with those around them.
COVID-19 came and disrupted people’s way of living, some have coped and others are still struggling as evidenced by the rise in gender based violence and drug abuse.
PHOEBE Zimbabwe offers services at their offices in Greendale Harare, Chikurubi Female Prisons Psychiatric Unit, Parirenyatwa Annexe Hospital, Harare Central Hospital Psychiatric Unit and their Harare communities which include Mabvuku, Dzivarasekwa, Mbare, Tafara and Chitungwiza, among others. In June 2019 they scaled up their activities to Mashonaland East Province operating in Marondera and Goromonzi districts.
