Two days ago, I attended my first Ethiopian Funeral ceremony. It was a very sad and heart breaking experience for me. When I heard about a 21 years old young man hang himself after he left a hospital within an hour, all I could think of is the young man did it for crying out for help. The ceremony was great and very fancy. The flowers, the foods, the candles and even people were well dress in black . We, Ethiopians are very good at aftermath. We are good at helping during death and wedding, but why aren’t we that good at crisis intervention?Why are we good at “J ib kehed wesha chohe?" I hear here and there about mental illness in our community. I myself had a very close family memeber who went through sever depression but, luckily he came out of his depression with the help of God and his family. I can't help but wonder if this incident is a wake-up call for our community.
My concern is it would be too late before we wake up and smell the coffee, so let’s stop the stigma with mental illness and talk about it. For the young man, may his soul rest in peace and give strength to his family
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