Mental health and Violence: Wellbeing and Happiness Series with MoNya-Mental

Suicide becomes an option as an extreme end where someone has tried “everything within their limited resource” By Psychotherapist Mertha Mo Nyamande What is Violence? Violence and Aggression includes Fire-Setting, Suicides and Gender Based Violence (GBV) or Domestic Violence (DV), which form critical parts of Risk Assessment (RA) in managing Mental Health Disorders (MHD) that bring about illness and other lasting ill effects. It is important to separate MHD and the issues they cause so as not to confuse them as Mental Illnesses (MI). These issues affect the self initially, for psychological pain starts within before it is externalised, they then extend to others, often when it becomes visible in physical form and other ways. This is when they become issues that require intervention. Unfortunately, most initial interventions are punitive in nature due to the poor understanding of the problem, thereby adding to the pain. Essentially these behaviours are ways that the individual tries to express how they are feeling within to others around them, in part to raise attention in seeking help, often misunderstood as attention-seeking behaviours, and in part as “maladaptive” coping strategies. So, whenever someone is becoming violent or aggressive, they are simply communicating how