LIVING IN DENIAL PREDISPOSES TO MENTAL ILLNESS

 

Denial in ordinary English Language is asserting that a statement or allegation is not true. The same word, and also abnegation is used for a psychological defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is filled with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite overwhelming evidence. The subject may use; Simple denial which involves denying the reality of the unpleasant fact altogether or minimization by admitting the fact but deny its  seriousness  which is a combination of denial and rationalization or projection by admitting both and fact but  deny responsibility by blaming somebody or something else. 

Although denial is an immature defense mechanism; it may however be the initial stage of an adaptive coping cycle. When an unwelcome change occurs, a trauma of some sort, the first impulse to disbelieve begins the process of coping at times allowing the mind to slowly rise to greater consciousness until a rational engagement of the problem is instituted. This occurs in association to death, dying and sometimes rape. In this context; denial grants the person the time to accumulate sufficient emotional resources to fully face the trauma. Once fixed, the person deals with the trauma in a stage alternately called acceptance or enlightenment.    

After this stage, the trauma sinks away from total conscious awareness again, left metaphorically upon a back burner or put away in a cupboard through sublimation that involves a balance of neither quite forgetting nor quite remembering.

However, it is definitely established that when immature defense mechanisms especially denial are overused, they can lead to psychological disorders since it does not help to resolve the anxiety producing situation.  It is important that we realize that pathological denial can be exhibited in a large scale – among groups, cultures or even nations. Lucy Bregman, gives an example of national denial of imminent mortality in the 1950s: the large scale denial by some that the World War II holocaust never occurred. This shows that societies are marked by peculiar beliefs, customs, practices and values energized by culture as the enabling software.  In Nigeria, the bulk of our cultural values codified as superstitions, myths and taboos have denial as the central theme. It may be that our fore fathers had the creative use of denial in mind   to give time to rationally engage problems but this defense mechanism has been largely abused in our cultural elaboration. This has been largely reinforced by authority figures in the clan and religious domains, specific instructions concerning certain issues in the society and several prohibitions without a basic rational engagement of issues. This has affected our style of governance where we parade ourselves as a wealthy nation based on a chance discovery of oil rather than creative productivity. The civil service, the professional group and even the academia are not engaging the real issues confronting our nation because the culture of denial is pervasive which frustrates real engagement of our problems. This denial mental paradigm provides the breeding ground for delusions that invariably culminate in mental illness. At a personal level, when denial becomes overused in the context of an ongoing problem; reality testing becomes impaired and mental illness ensues. The major difference between   spirituality and religiosity is that denial is very prominent with religiosity   while faith which involves the application of the power of omnipotence to deal with problems that are clearly defined and accepted is the hall mark of spirituality. Most Nigerians are only religious but not spiritual as our religion has failed to interrogate our cultural values to expunge the destructive aspects because we prefer to wallow in denial which is a breeding ground for mental illness.. Unfortunately our religious leadership because of pecuniary gains has borrowed heavily from our cultural software of denial through fear, brainwashing, manipulation and self-attribution.  I have always predicted that new patterns of mental illnesses will emerge from our religiosity where reality testing is largely impaired with a large scale reliance   on   another man’s faith rather than God which invariably makes such minds vulnerable to profound intrapsychic conflicts that survive on immature defense mechanism of denial leading to mental illness. Mental capital development prescribes that we encourage mature defense mechanisms and stimulate rational engagement of life problems as we trust God.  

Cultural standards and expectations can encourage denial of subjective experience. Men who belong to cultures with extreme notions of masculinity may view fear as a sign of weakness and deny internal feelings of fear. Some patients with personality disorder and substance abuse problems are thought to psychologically deny the reality of the harm they do to others and to self hence the traditional treatment program for substance abuse and other addictions take denial   as a central theme where patients are made recognize the extent of their denial   and work towards acceptance. Stress as a precursor of mental illness can only be managed as precipitating issues are confronted just as prayer cannot be beneficial in the atmosphere of denial.                

CULTURE AS TEMPLATE FOR MENTAL CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT.

This topic came up in my mind after I read an article ‘Are Nigeria politicians crazy’? What is quite obvious concerning Nigeria is that she is blessed with Natural resources and some folks add that we are blessed with human resources a point I disagree with? The fact that we have numerous professionals, technologists and even academicians  who possible may be literate but not educated as this does not confer on Nigeria the status  of being blessed  with human resources.   The value of human resource in   any society is the caliber of mental capital it can deliver. We have a critical mass of human resources with some literacy but not essentially   educated. We have acquired some   knowledge in a manner that did not interrogate our culture hence the disconnect   between our elites’ claim to education and their leadership failures in all ramifications. Our politicians do not have mental illness; they have only taken advantage of our mediocre cultural software to express their greed. We parade a culture that immunizes the leader from scrutiny and has no provision for   feedbacks from the polity.   It is amazing how modern technology through computer software programming controls huge, sophisticated and massive equipment. Those heavy machines   with their complex parts move together in synchrony towards a particular function as programmed by computer software. All nations have cultural software that programs their sociopolitical behavior. Education, contact with other civilizations and other means   of inculcation of new ideas are only external to the native cultural software of the people. This is in consonance to the principles of socialization. No race is superior to the other; but the difference lies in the degree that the native culture of such nations has been interrogated such that destructive components are expunged in the face of universal best practices. This is the mandate of mental capital development as it is being canvassed by the developed counties. Rather than single out the politicians as being sick; I locate our cultural software as being pathological which does not excuse the polity. Our poverty derives not from the scarcity of natural resources but from lack of mental capital. We have aggregates of literate persons   constituting the elite class in various sectors of our society who had cumulatively mismanaged our resources over the years because of mediocre mental capital.   Our pre-colonial   cultural software concerning leadership   is defective. As a matter of fact, it is more of rulership   than leadership where the elite class assumes the status of an unquestionable deity.  If the ruler deems fit to collect your wife   or farmland so be it. This rulership   style laid the foundation   for contemporary leadership failures and poverty. There is definitely no opportunity   for the development of mental capital which is a resource that grows as questions are asked and decisions are taken for the ultimate good   of all and not a select few. In our pre-colonial societies; there is no clear cut facility feedbacks   emanating from the masses to challenge leadership and make them do the right. The colonial masters only banished the traditional   institutions and imposed their own native colonial masters in all sectors of the society either through a military junta and a democratic arrangement.  This impunity and recklessness of our leaders supported by our cultural software   is reasonable for poor infrastructural development and most painfully poor mental capital development. The caliber and the quality of the mental capital of a nation eventually determine the prosperity of that nation. Mental capital is the resource that confers on us the resilience to effectively cope with the challenges of life. It is the resource that empowers individuals to contribute effectively to society and also to experience a high quality of life. This mandate transcends the clinical paradigms as it challenges all social institution to contribute to the mental capital development agenda. Leaders of those institutions should expunge stifling rulership tendencies and open up the space towards mental capital development by releasing the potentials embedded in the human capital towards the ultimate goal of wholesome development. The   family as the most basic unit of the society should be led in a way that   the children are empowered to give their best to the society. A good number of children taking to behavior injurious to health can be traced to families that are mismanaged. Our religious leaders should help to banish destructive   myths, taboos and superstitions that frustrate   mental capital development. Every sector of the society should have this agenda in my mind as we move into the new year  just as  our political leaders should endeavor to ensure that  they take decisions that will create the enabling environment for mental capital development.

CULTURAL TRANSITION AND MENTAL HEALTH

I believe that no culture is virgin; however there are regions  of the world that have much more consistent and enduring cultural values and traditions over time than others. Africa where I belong happens to be part of those regions of the world undergoing  cultural changes and transition without a certain destination in mind. I do not know  what the anthropologists  will call it; but certainly our culture is  evolving and has not reached a stable phase. In recent years, the concept of culture- bound syndromes has been the focus of a debate between the  universalists, who interprete these conditions as cultural  elaborations of universal neuropsychological  phenomena; and the  cultural relativists who see them as generated by, and expressive  of distinctive  features of a particular culture. Contemporary psychiatry however  avoids adopting  either of those ideologically influenced paradigms. It describes representative examples of culturally- related syndromes  as aggregates of symptoms  and behavioural disturbances  that can be plausibly related to cultural emphasis  and associated   stressful situations that are typical  of particular populations. This actually furnishes the intellectual template for this discourse. The precolonial  african culture was raped and infiltrated by colonialism. The colonial masters in their  bid to take over our land,understudied our culture  and introduced the indirect rule that initially made some  traditional rulers their agents  to gain  access into  our lives and cultural values. Their ultimate strategy was to nurture  a rival elite class that would replace  the traditional elite ruling class since they could read, write, speak english language and invariably live by a hybrid  western -african cultural values.These native Nigerian colonial masters lived  in GRAs manned  with dogs and  gate men thereby  preventing easy access to them as opposed to  the pre-colonial architectural designs that facilitated  unhindered social intercourse. The culture- change definitely has very grave impact on the mental health of the people. Brain fag syndrome has been recognised in many  african students at home and abroad and also  who are exposed to the aculturative stress of a western type education system emphasising theoretical book knowledge quite different from the practical know how acquired through  oral traditions by older generations in africa.Nevertheless, these  african parents expect their childern to achieve  socio- economic success in modern society associated with intense  emotional pressure thereby presenting with  crawling senstions  in the head and the body,  aches,eye trouble  especially blurred  vision and tears when reading, impaired concentration and difficulty in comprehending. Another example is the bouffee deliriante which is usually sudden ,self limiiting  and  usually as a form of reactions embedded in anxieties over sorcery and witchcraft that  increase under rapid sociocultural changes.Usually characterized by varied and uncharacteristic delusions;seeing and hearing things that others cannot perceive in clear consciousness;often demonstrative and sometimes dangerous acting out behaviour.The prominent sociocultural factors underlyingthe incidence of this disorder is the acculturative stress affecting many persons in many parts of contemporary Africa who have become marginalized in society through rapid culture change as  traditional communalistic society is disintegrating and the supportive kin network is breaking down.The individual experiences an increasing economic rivalry and social isolation that intensifies the old fears of witchcraft and sorcery,never obliterated by the western religous approaches  while the traditional protective and remedial resources are no longer readily available.These 2 examples clearly ilustrate the posible effect of  cultural transition on the mental health of an average Nigerian akin to  neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism as a consequence of globalization of values.We are no longer truly africans in our cultural orientation and essentially not  western.This obviously has very grave psychological  implications for our marriage,family-life,community-life,financial ,political,religious  and professional endeavors.The western media through music and video augmented by our own  Nollywood have produced a new generation  with profound  cognitive dissonance. Their values about marriage for instance may be  generally unrealistic  which may explain increasing rates of divorce,separation or  associated mental health issues. Social habits of the emerging generation in this cultural transition  invariably are  factors of predisposition for substance abuse and addiction,sexual disorders and other bahavioral disorders.Religious practices in this setting  may actually be a major precursor of mental disorders  when religious leaders place unrealistic demands for material prosperity on their adherents without a corressponding productive basis. Our fully westernized educational philosophy  may be responsible for increase in the level of unemployment amidst abundance of natural resources.The African  leadership crisis may be a product of the coexistence  of  2 strong opposing  ideologies in the mind of our ruling elite class namely;the rulership, exclusive african cultural software  and the egalitarian, democractic  western values  which  has produced a leadership without an identity  invariably floundering   in self preservation  by looting public funds and producing a sococultural mileu suitable for developing mental illness. Leadership in all facets of our lives must engage our values in this transition and entrench those that will encourage sound mental health.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND MENTAL WELL-BEING

The Royal Niger Company was a British chartered company, active from 1886 through 1899 in the territory bordering the Niger and Benue Rivers in contemporary Nigeria that parlayed its administrative powers into a successful commercial monopoly. Such foreign-owned chartered companies played a significant role in the history of economic imperialism in sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial era. Scholars   feel that chartered companies were exploitative and profitable only for foreign investors and viewed as economic failures especially by the native Africans. This provides the background for understanding corporate social responsibility in Africa and Nigeria especially.

 The genesis of the debate on the concept of corporate social responsibility has been traced to the wave of crisis in social values that engulfed America in the post-World War II period and most especially in the sixties when it was observed that society has lost confidence in its institutions – in the government, in the press, in the church, in the military, as well as in business. 

As a response to this challenge, businesses in America were engineered to generate enormous positive impact on social life in America since the civil war II although the gains were threatened by a wave of protests from various publics it used to serve.  The crisis of confidence in the social role of business is made explicit in debates on corporate social responsibility that seeks to control and at least re-orientate its directions from the taunted profit maximization dogma and pay attention to the human lives and the environment. 

 The concept of corporate social responsibility is a crude blend of long-run profit-making and altruism; a doctrine which fuses social values with profit maximization goals. In the early years of the American Republic and especially in the post-civil war reconstruction era, business in America played an almost indispensable role as a powerful social tool for harnessing resources and ensuring material progress.  But as the years rolled on and business began to concentrate and centralize capital, its role in the economy became expansive and pervasive.  At the height of prosperity, the captains of industry were heralded as heroes of the society as they took responsibility for the company's effects on environment and social wellbeing.

 CSR may also be referred to as "corporate citizenship" and can involve incurring short-term costs that do not provide an immediate financial benefit to the company, but instead promote positive social and environmental change. Corporations can have enormously detrimental effects on the environment. Oil spills are some of the most conspicuous examples, but industries as varied as chemical manufacturing, mining, agriculture and fishing can do permanent damage to local ecosystems. Climate change can also be attributed in large part to corporations. While their responsibility is hard to untangle from that of the consumers who demand social responsibility.It is difficult to deny that many corporations have profited from the deterioration of the global environment.   Companies can therefore invest in local communities in order to offset the negative impact their operations might have. A natural resources firm that begins to operate in a poor community might build a school, offer medical services or improve irrigation and sanitation equipment. Similarly, a company might invest in research even though the project might not immediately lead to increased profitability. Companies might make extraordinary efforts to hire, foster and empower a diverse workforce. They might offer generous paid maternity and paternity leave. They might sponsor after-school programs in crime-affected neighborhoods, fund the clean-up of local river systems and put pressure on elected officials to consider the needs of all citizens rather than simply seeking political expediency. 

The Nigerian situation is precarious because there is no effective regulation for the corporate business where labor is cheap, abused and the workforce vulnerable to mental health issues. None of our major corporate organizations has invested in any mental health intervention despite enormous burden that exist. Most of our corporate settings have no vigorous program for proactively engaging the mental health needs of their employees. We have serious social issues that our corporate organizations may do well for by intervening in diverse social issues that may invariably have mental health consequences.  The immediate challenges we face as a nation are enormous especially as touching the unemployed youths, the drug addicts and the homeless mentally ill may benefit from so much of corporate responsibility and philanthropic efforts.  The public-private partnership model has many benefits but has served only the interest of the privileged political class rather than the vulnerable masses. The corporate social responsibility is a better model that can midwife a versatile futuristic public –private partnership after these institutions have helped to jumpstart programs of intervention for the vulnerable. The contemporary Nigerian corporate organizations need to convince us that they are different from the Royal Niger Company which was purely a colonial instrument of economic   exploitation of the natives as they make giant and deliberate strides in mental health intervention programmes.

CONNECTION BETWEEN GIVING AND MENTAL WELL- BEING

Christmas essentially is a religiously designated season for giving but research shows becoming more giving round the year can significantly boost physical health and mental wellbeing. However, the frenzy of Christmas shopping and the planning for parties can paradoxically feel a bit of a stretch and distraction when this idea of giving to others in a deliberate and constructive manner is entertained. It is now clear that doing good for others without any expectation of reward can confer better physical and mental health and even help live longer.

A US-based altruism and health researcher Stephen G. Post puts it this way; "A remarkable fact is that giving, even in later years, can delay death. The impact of giving is just as significant as not smoking and avoiding obesity." Indeed one study of 2025 older residents of California found those who volunteered for two or more organizations had a 44 per cent reduction in mortality over five years even after accounting for factors like differences in prior health status just as giving in a more material sense can boost mental wellbeing while “hands on" and face-to-face helping have enormous boost for wellbeing. This may take the form of volunteering or practicing acts of kindness as well as spending for others. Studies have established that those who spent money on others or on a charity are happier than those who perpetually spent on themselves.  The problem with giving at Christmas and any other religious festival that prescribes giving is that   we get sucked into the commercial and the religious rituals that have become completely divorced from any sort of intrinsic meaning. However, if the focus on why you're giving is to make another person happy it can really make you feel better with profound   physical changes that underpin that. Although how giving boosts health is not fully understood, but reduction in the exposure to stress hormones may be one factor. It takes so much stress to get competitive and accumulate material things at the expense of others. Knowing we've done something to improve the life of others not only boosts our self esteem and gives us a sense of purpose; it also shifts our attention away from our own stresses and worries.

Giving also integrates you more solidly and cohesively into your supportive social networks making it more likely you'll have helping behavior returned to you when you need it especially when you suffer a loss in your own life. A good number of mental illnesses are caused by major life events that challenge and overstretch the psychological resources of  individuals to a point that requires some form of external support that can augment the coping mechanisms. 

Twenty year follow-up studies at Harvard university  have mapped thousands of people and shown those who pay attention to others tend to move towards the centre of their social network, whereas those who don't get pushed further and further to the edges as the network changes over time. This is very crucial since shared social support is one of the things that would probably play a major role in longevity with some great impact on mental wellbeing. Some of the other changes that happen when we give have even been observed in brain scans. Studies involving functional magnetic resonance imaging scans have shown donating money to charity with well thought out meaning triggers the same pleasure and reward systems in the brain as food and sex. If you don't have time to commit to regular volunteer works, one can experience the benefits of giving  by practicing  simple acts of kindness which could be providing shelter for the homeless ones, phoning or visiting  a housebound person, Collecting goods for a charity and supervising a thoughtful and considerate distribution, letting someone in front of you in the traffic or in a queue especially giving consideration for the elderly, granting scholarship for an indigent student ,Surprising a colleague at work with a useful assistance concerning a problem, helping to provide care for wandering mentally ill or setting aside funds for the widows. However it is important that the primary motive is to enhance someone else's wellbeing not just about personal aggrandizement which will invariably lead to resentment if such acts are not properly appreciated. 

 The prevalent harsh socioeconomic situation in itself is responsible for the increase in mental illness which can be relieved through social support intervention from the privileged which invariably accrues as sound mental wellbeing for the giver. However, greed serves as the template for developing different kinds of mental illness which is prevalent in leadership positions in Nigeria whether in religion, politics, academics or business. Unfortunately, this has set a template that guarantees perpetual   increase in the incidence of mental illness for both the poor and the rich.

WHEN DEPRESSION IS HIDDEN

I find this article very interesting and quite relevant to our situation at this very challenging period of our national life when a sizeable number of our people may actually be depressed without knowing or making efforts to conceal it. This article was originally written by Dr. John Grohol who is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online and has been writing about mental health and psychology issues since 1992.

 However, the following signs might point to the depression such individuals may have been trying to conceal.

1. They have unusual sleep, eating or drinking habits that differ from their normal ones.

When a person seems to have changed the way they sleep or eat in significant ways, that’s often a sign that something is wrong.  When a person can’t sleep (or sleeps for far too long) every day, that may be a sign of hidden depression. Others turn to food or alcohol to try and quash their feelings. Overeating can help someone who is depressed feel full, which in turn helps them feel less emotionally empty inside. Drinking may be used to help cover up the feelings of sadness and loneliness that often accompany depression. Sometimes a person will go in the other direction too — losing all interest in food or drinking.

2. They wear a forced “happy face” and are always making excuses.

We’ve all seen someone who seems like they are trying to force happiness. It’s a mask we all wear from time to time. But in most cases, the mask wears thin the longer you spend time with the person who’s wearing it. That’s why lots of people with hidden depression try not to spend any more time with others than they absolutely have to. They seem to always have a quick and ready excuse for not being able to hang out, go to dinner, or see you.It’s hard to see behind the mask of happiness that people with hidden depression wear. Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of it in a moment of honesty, or when there’s a conversation lull.

3. They may talk more philosophically than normal.

When you do finally catch up with a person with masked depression, you may find the conversation turning to philosophical topics they don’t normally talk much about. These might include the meaning of life, or what their life has amounted to so far. They may even open up enough to acknowledge occasional thoughts of wanting to hurt themselves or even thoughts of death. They may talk about finding happiness or a better path in the journey of life.These kinds of topics may be a sign that a person is struggling internally with darker thoughts that they dare not share.

4. They may put out a cry for help, only to take it back.

People with hidden depression struggle fiercely with keeping it hidden. Sometimes, they give up the struggle to conceal their true feelings and so they tell someone about it. They may even take the first step and make an appointment with a doctor or therapist, and a handful will even will make it to the first session. But then they wake up the next day and realize they’ve gone too far. Seeking out help for their depression would be admitting they truly are depressed. That is an acknowledgment that many people with concealed depression struggle with and cannot make. Nobody else is allowed to see their weakness.

5. They feel things more intensely than normal.

A person with masked depression often feels emotions more intensely than others. This might come across as someone who doesn’t normally cry while watching a TV show or movie suddenly breaks out in tears during a poignant scene. Or someone who doesn’t normally get angry about anything suddenly gets very mad at a driver who cut them off in traffic. Or someone who doesn’t usually express terms of endearment suddenly is telling you that they love you. It’s like by keeping their depressive feelings all boxed up, other feelings leak out around the edges more easily.

6. They may look at things with a less optimistic point of view than usual.

This is depressive realism when such individuals appear to have a more realistic picture of the world around them. For instance, while normal people are usually more optimistic about life circumstances, those attempting to conceal depression may say things like “Well, I’m up for that promotion again, but I doubt I’ll get it.”In our own environment they may be more involved in overt religiously prescribed problem-solving approaches to the detriment of their overall quality of life. 

If anyone fits into any of these complaints, it is advisable to visit a psychiatrist or any mental health expert for effective intervention to prevent suicide.

CHALLENGES OF FAMILIES WITH SPECIAL CHILDREN.

Irrespective of culture, race or geographical location; children are not just bye products of the marital relationship but a crucial basis for societal modulation of the family unit. This explains the basis for   different cultures having varied but potent reactions to infertility where children cannot be produced and having children with peculiar challenges. Beyond the medical explanations for infertility or special children; there are very potent sociocultural and religious issues that are capable of militating against beneficial approach to the effective management options of these problems. Special children in this context are those with peculiar needs that require much more support than other children for them to function optimally. This condition  may have been precipitated  by the mishandling  of the pregnancy where certain drugs are  taken that  damage  the growing  brain  of fetus,   failure to take precautions against possibility of jaundice in  certain circumstances  or  mismanagement of the delivery process  such as  prolonged labor, premature draining of the waters  that can result in fetal distress and mechanical trauma  to the fragile brain of the new born baby through unprofessional  handling of the delivery process. We have   many untrained traditional birth attendants and religious maternity centers that are not professionally supervised which may lead to an increased incidence in the population of children with special needs.  There may be other causes traceable to some genetic factors, some inherited metabolic disorders or advanced maternal age. These children may be born with cognitive defects associated with seizures   that could manifest in many ways. As the child grows there may be deficits in the achievement of developmental milestones with associated poor performance in the school short of that expected for their chronological age.  The overall presentation could be mild, moderate or severe depending on the severity on the overall global functioning of the child. These children may also have problems with posture and sensations   that will require orthopedic and physiotherapeutic interventions. These children often require a multidisciplinarian   approach in their management with the ultimate goal of assisting them   maximize the available intellectual resources for their ultimate good.  There are some of them that can perform brilliantly well in certain aspects of life when appropriate educational techniques identify such dimensions and assist in developing them.  Drugs are often indicated in a number of them which should be professionally administered so that the side effects of some of these drugs do not outweigh the beneficial effects especially for children with behavioral challenges that require medications. 

However, our society through the sick role has explanations and prescribed interventions for these special children which make it difficult for the parents of these children to get the best out of them. Within this context, children with special needs are viewed as products of   spiritual attacks and that their parents may be serving some form of punishment from God for a wrongdoing which can explain the hostile attitude of some  neighbors to these children and the society at large. In some instances these children are viewed as spiritual agents of misfortune and some individuals in the society use them as agents of social crime.   As a result of the stigma, some of them are locked up away from the glare of the public without any intelligently coordinated intervention since they are seen as financial and emotional devourers.  Africans through our primitive culture have very wrong attitudes to these children that make them vulnerable to all forms of abuse. The parents by extension are also maligned especially the mothers who may be seen   as the custodian of evil forces that manifest through   abnormal children in their own reckoning. Several unwholesome religious and cultural interventions include   beatings, starving and burning of certain parts of their bodies in the process of exorcism apart from injuries a number of them sustain through uncontrolled seizure attacks.  When these children exhibit some behavioral problems as a result of poor judgment or antisocial behavior, such a child is often treated with grave physical abuse tending towards ostracism while the parents are made to feel guilty for having brought such a child into the world. Some individuals actually rape such children, use them to commit crimes and take advantage of their deficits rather than support them to maximize their available intellectual resources.  This unfavorable position in the society has affected government and relevant health agencies that should have been supportive in giving these children the best. The care of such children consumes not only enormous   financial resources but a lot of emotional resources especially on the part of the parents. Policies that can support, protect and encourage professional care of these children should be encouraged. Corporate institutions can rise to this challenge by setting up a highly equipped educational and vocational centers for these children in a multidisciplinary setting as social network of their children should be encouraged.