A HEART FOR MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS OF MIND

INTRODUCTION
My name is Musinguzi. I am a born again Christian and Engineer by profession. I am also a businessman, father, husband, community leader and passionate mentor to many. I give oversight to the operations of the Praus Group which is made up of five specialist companies in Kampala. The Lord has been good to me and has deal bountifully with me and my family. Indeed he has expanded my territory and kissed me with favor. But this has not always been the case. My life has been a bitter sweet journey, sweet because I have been exposed to the good things of life and have tested success both in the past and present but bitter because I have been through hell and back. I share below my journey out of the murky waters and my desire that everyone found in my circumstances finds hope and dignity to live a fulfilling life.

YOU WILL HAVE TO TAKE A DEAD YEAR …
Those where the words I heard that afternoon in the Makerere University Main building in 2005. What had begun as a little stress here and there had eventually taken a hold of my mental faculties and was literally crushing my known world. This is how it began. During my A’Level, I found myself often depressed and losing grip of my academics. I wasn’t performing at full throttle having topped the country at O’level. I didn’t understand why the things that were a walk in the park for me all of a sudden became burdensome and a literal struggle. I took to prayer and the Lord helped me sail through to campus. But in my first year, a combination of family strife and financial pressures led me to high stress and that’s when the ball dropped.

I was quickly admitted for specialist attention and the doctor called it Bipolar Disorder. This is a mental condition that leads to an alteration of the mind and mood patterns of the individual causing cycles of highs and lows and if left unchecked can ruin an entire life. All through university I had my share of depression and manic episodes and had to be hospitalized several times in Psychiatric facilities. I was hooked on prescription drugs and was literally absent most of the time. Through my disposition to altered judgement and a weak mind, I messed up very important relationships in my life that have taken years to mend. Every girl I would date would eventually run away whenever they got to know of my status. Things were just going downhill quicker than anything I ever imagined. I lost hope in life to the point of suicide. But the Lord wasn’t done with me yet.

WILL YOU WALK THIS JOURNEY WITH ME?
This is the prayer I made to the Lord when all else had failed. And He gladly took my hand and led me through to light. It has been way more than a decade of a normal balanced and fulfilling life and it is against this backdrop that I would like to dedicate my life to the cause of helping those ladies and gentlemen afflicted with mental challenges. And if the Lord tarries, which I am sure He will do, we shall take this hope of a new life to the dark ends and crevices of Africa.

WHAT HAS WORKED FOR ME?
Almost accidentally or out of sheer blessing, I found myself in a routine of activities that have grown over the years to become the holistic approach that I now desire to suggest to many affected men and women and families on the continent.

The first tangible step to recovery was self-awareness. It dawned on me that if I was to lift my immediate family out of poverty, I had to finish the engineering course despite the many retakes. I decided then to learn all there was about Bipolar Disorder. This impressed my Psychiatrist and former Doctor, the world renowned Dr. Margaret Mungherera (RIP) who encouraged me to keep reading and ‘accepting’ to live positively with the condition. She used to say to me that, “Everyone has a level of madness. The difference is the variance in the composition of the brain chemicals that either lead to a normal life or one with mental conditions; and that it was a thin line of balance between the two.” Indeed I realized as I watched some lives around me get wretched, that it takes a twist in life’s circumstances to cause this alteration for those who are genetically predisposed.

The second and very important one is religiously taking your medication and having regular checkups as advised by your Doctor. I learnt this the hard way. In my fourth year, I was tired of the medication and decided to abscond from treatment. I got the worst break down I have ever got and was hospitalized for weeks in Butabika hospital. But thank God, when I resumed the medication, I got back on track. So medication is key. The Lord blessed humanity with doctors to offer the right solutions to medical problems and ailments.

I would like to join in with the third point and it is often warped and misinterpreted. As a Christian, I believe in healing and indeed the Lord healed me. But along the journey, I saw right in the bible the two contrasts: that the LORD God gave green herbs for medicine to the people He created and that Jesus also offered total healing to the many afflicted by various ailments. All disease is the work of Satan and the curse upon creation caused by the fall. The problem is many Christians will abandon their medication and just blindly pray. This is usually a disaster. So the only way to come around this is to submit to the authority of God and follow his leading by cooperating with both natural and spiritual laws. I have done this by prayer. I dedicate a minimum of 2 hours a day to pray, study his word and worship Him. Even at my tightest and busiest moments, I endeavor to curve out this time. Because I have discovered a secret in spending time with Him.

I cannot over emphasize family and community support. This support is invaluably very important and has been one of my biggest anchors. You need family to escort you to the doctor’s appointments, you need them to encourage you when you hit those episodes, you need them when you are almost quitting the medication, you need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance and you need a good environment to thrive. You need friends to confide in when stuff is tight. You need friends to pray with, you need friends to live life with and on and on. In a nut shell you need to do life with a caring and understanding family and community.

Additionally, you need a serene and quiet environment for reflection every once in a while. I learnt this abit later on in the journey when I discovered guided meditation and mindfulness. Beware of quack and demonic meditation practices out there. I have used Christian meditation on the Abide App and many others that are championed by Christian leaders and teachers. This puts your mind at rest and regenerates it. I have often got my best rest and ideas during this time. I also listen to a lot of relaxing music that is instrumental. It gives rest from the noise of life. Avoid trash TV and unproductive internet time.

THE PRAUS FOUNDATION
The Corona virus pandemic has brought the challenges of the human mind to the fore. World over, many communities and individuals are battling with massive fear and anxiety due to the changing and uncertain health and economic challenges posed by the pandemic and this has led to depression which if left unchecked can lead to suicide and an unpleasant half lived life. There has also been massive predisposition to stresses in homes due to strife between parents during this lock down and many sensitive children are likely to be caught up in this malady. In fact, I was chatting with one doctor recently and he told me of how fortunate I am to have been diagnosed early and that the number of Psychiatrists in the country were much less than the cases around and that people are actually not aware that these conditions are treatable and can be managed. Many associate these with witchcraft and therefore seek for help in the wrong places or are even written off as outfits in society. For long, the stigma was huge for me until the Lord aligned circumstances that led to my complete recovery.

It is this exposure and success story that I want to pass on to many men and women burdened by mental health challenges. As many as the Lord brings my way. It is my desire to extend support to organizations experienced in managing such conditions and hospitals as well as raising awareness to make life worth living for the affected persons. I am a living testimony that with the right mix of initiatives, the good life is within reach.

And it is with this background that The Praus Foundation was born. There is need to set up centers where all these approaches and other best practices not mentioned are championed and practiced to help God’s people out there. The vision is to have a centre of the kind in each of the African countries by the time the Lord calls me home.