On Mental Illness in Egypt

I was invited to attend a raising awareness event " Biking Depression Away" by my ex coworker and friend Dr Fahmy Bahget, fahmy is a Psychiatrist and he is doing great work , like participating in training refugees to be sico – social workers, he is part of the ministry of health initiative to enhance the human rights status of the mentally disabled persons and he is involved in  an association of the rights of the mentally and psychological disabled persons.

Fahmy invited me to the event, I over slept and I am too fat to ride a bike, so I decided to write about the status of mentally and psychologically disabled persons.

In a nut shell, they are invisible, they are socially stigmatized, they die slowly because of lack of adequate and accessible  services, I remember my family member who was bipolar and he was in denial and he refused to take his medication and he committed suicide in a low mode episode, I blamed my family which negated that we are suffering from mental illness, I blamed myself that I never noticed or made any action , I blamed him that he stayed silent and died alone in pain and I blame the society and the government for being too inhuman to mentally ill persons

I lost a family member and many are detained in bad conditions facilities and they are denied their rights as human beings , I wish one day the mentally and psychologically ill persons will not be called crazy and they get the needed help, may that day come to save many innocent souls