Parents to blame for dysfunctional adults

This week, we were all paying attention to the trials and tribulations of Esther Arunga, former TV star, following her guilty plea and subsequent sentencing. Some people were sympathetic, others were unkind, but a huge majority said she was somewhat crazy. This had me thinking about the recent increased spotlight on mental illness as a result of growing numbers of suicide and reports of depression.

Yet the more I think about it, the more I realise that many of us suffer from some form of mental dysfunctionality - only we are not locked up in some mental institution. The danger with this state of affairs is that these dysfunctionalities show up in our workplaces, in our social lives and worst of all in our love relationships. To make matters worse, we have been conditioned to think that seeking therapy and psychological help is un-African and is for wimps. The end result is that we have many messed up folks who are becoming nasty colleagues, lovers, siblings or because they cannot acknowledge that they are somewhat ‘messed up.”