Category: GMHPN

Mental health Challenges and Addiction – there is hope


What do you think about mental health problems and addiction? Watch my video on that and be inspired to take positive actions now: https://youtu.be/BxISqQKoZS0

Watch “Mental illness and Sexual Abuse Grace’s story and appeal” on YouTube


#mentalillnessnsexualabuse some mentally ill are vulnerable to being sexual abused like Grace was. She is 23 years and has been ill since 2012. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2013. A man purred her to bed 2 months ago, given her a ring that he was going to marry her. He just needed to know how deep was her own love to him. We can aptly plead insanity here, she doesn’t have all her mental faculties to make informed choices. Now she is pregnant and the man has disappeared. The last time she saw him he gave her 14.000frs to go for an abortion. Why are some people so wicked? Grace is suicidal, her mother is over the edge with worry and sadness. Theirs is a struggling family of 6 kids with she being the third. After 4 years away from school due to the illness, she resumed form 5 last year hoping to write her O’levels. Please, listen to her story and reach out to help out if you can. We need all the help we can get and no amount is too small. Our phone number for any Mobile money donations in Cameroon is +237672576011 Hope for the Abused and Battered. Ref should be Grace, our email address is hope@hope4abusedbattered.com. Website is http://www.hope4abusedbatteted.com. Thank you all, #thereishope.

World Mental Health Day 2019, I reflect some…


I have definitely come a long way since opening up about my mental health challenges in 2013, and PTSD diagnosis which followed in 2014. Could it be just 6 years gone? I have come to realize the best way to liberate yourself of the yoke of stigma and shame, face dem phobias and foes, is to #speakyourmind. When you do that, you without knowing give others the permission to relate and #daretohopetoo.

I run an organisation today which at barely 10 months got a US Embassy grant to principally carry out mental health awareness, advocacy and look at what structures could be put in place to facilitate mental well-being. I know there is more to come and to be done.

I share this tweet from the Global Mental Health Peer Network to which I belong too as the executive representing Cameroon, to encourage and motivate us all on this day.

#WMHD2019. Together we can prevent and reduce #suicide rates through – Raise #awareness; Eliminate #stigma; Create #support structures for those suffering; Provide safe spaces to #speak about struggles; Make sure that no one feels alone; Generate #hope! @global_peer

A special shout out to Ashley Peterson who blogs over at Mentalhealth@Home.

This picture reminds me of when I started to consciously hate how my life was playing out back then

The Church and Mental health challenges…could we be more…


Voice of the Voiceless
How can I be silent?

I leave dots after more because I leave it to each one to fill in what they want. I was shaken and yet poked up when I read of the pastor’s suicide. I was also in serious reflections about mental wellness whether you were a christian or not – coincidence or not? World suicide day had just come and gone, and I remember holding a knife to my heart 10 years ago while 5 months pregnant. I wrote several related posts on Facebook about this yesterday and I just saw another article which took me back to thinking about doing this post.

Here is the link to the article I read:

https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2019/september/pastor-dies-by-suicide-three-things-we-all-need-to-know.html?share=

Now, I don’t know about out there, but in my country mental health challenges are ‘not welcome in church’ period. Better call them demon possessed attacks or wicked people thrown sorts on you – bottom line is you have to be delivered in church, you have lots of penance to do and …

With me being so vocal about my mental health challenges and my PTSD diagnosis from 2014, I quickly learned when I joined church that it’s not so welcome to be vocal – about that and about pretty much – like Rape. I am contemplating if I can swim in such a sea or if I have to leave for real.

So, will this suicide by a pastor cause the ‘church’ to become more…open, real, compassionate, and you can go on; or will they quickly dissociate from the victim pastor, finding reasons to show he was perhaps a ‘fake’ pastor after all?

We’ll see how it goes…in the meantime let’s remember #mentalhealthmatters

Clinical depression is no death sentence


A Mental illness is not a death sentence. Clinical depression can only last that long. Joe is 38 and is ok with the world knowing he has been struggling with his mental health for 4 years and lost touch recently. But, #thereishope. I received him at the Integration Clinic Bonamousadi Douala Cameroon yesterday and he was hospitalised for a closer follow up and holistic treatment approach.

Ekema is a peer diagnosed with Schizophrenia 25 years ago and living with me since June 2018. He is doing so well now and is
working at the Hope for the Abused and Battered center currently running from home. He came to visit Joe and reassure him all will be well. Visit us at http://www.hope4abusedbattered.com

After Joe took a bath (hadn’t had one for days prior)

#notostigma
#mentalhealthiswealth
#mentalillness
#BetheHope
#Iamfreedomnlove

Watch “My Brother’s Journey with a mental illness reviewed by another Peer living with a mental illness.” on YouTube


In my country Cameroon, mental health and mental illness are still so much taboo.

As a passionate mental health advocate,a peer and now the Country Representative of the Global Mental Health Peer Network, I ceaselessly raise awareness as often as I can using any tools at my disposal.

I am honoured Ekema 39, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia 25 years ago, agreed to review my brother’s journey (diagnosed with bipolar disorder and died in 2014 after 18 years of turmoil). The similarities he points out in his own journey is striking.