East African Mental Health

Mental Health in East Africa

I was born and raised in a city of Kigali in Rwanda. Growing up in a war torn country was awful. However, it gave me opportunities to move around East Africa. This allowed me to live in 3 different countries excluding the U.S., to speak 5 languages and to learn a lot about different cultures in the East African region.
When I came to the U.S, a lot changed and one of many things I could not understand was why there are so many mental health disorders. Before I came to the U.S. I had never heard diseases like bipolar, ADHD, PTSD, schizophrenia and many others. Due to this, I used to think that Americans exaggerate everything and try to make excuses for their behavior by coming up with all kinds of diagnosis no one else ever heard of. However, overtime I realized that East Africans actually under-diagnose and misdiagnose those who are suffering from mental health.
This is it as far as abnormal psychology goes in most East African communities. In Rwanda there are one hospital for mental disorders that is serving 12 million people. Those who are rich keep their sick family member at home with constant supervision and never allow them to leave. They consider the ill family member a shame to the family so they hide him or her from the public forever. Patients from poor families have to either be taken to the lone mental health facility which is like a prison or be homeless on the streets where they are mocked, abused or