In Nigeria, you can tell people you have malaria and get sympathy. Tell them you are battling depression or hearing voices, and you may get silence, mockery, or a prayer that sounds like blame. That is stigma- turning illness into shame. It drives people underground and delays care. The cost is brutal because access is already thin. According to The Guardian in October 2025, Nigerian specialists and media reporting have warned that about 85% to 90% of people living with mental health conditions cannot access proper care. Also, a study by Ogunwale et al (2023) on Indigenous mental healthcare and human rights abuses in Nigeria highlights severe workforce shortages, including about 0.10 psychiatrists per 100,000 people, with other mental health cadres similarly scarce.
To end stigmatization, stop pretending it is only “ignorance.” Stigma survives because it is rewarded. People gain status by using “mad” as an insult. Employers avoid perceived “risk” by quietly rejecting applicants. Families protect marriage prospects by burying a diagnosis. Social media gets clicks from a person in crisis, not from a calm explanation. The 2023 research by Ogunwale et al describes stigma as labelling and “othering” that leads to discrimination and devaluation, and it directly harms treatment seeking and recovery. Start with the state: make the law real. Nigeria’s Mental Health Act, signed in January 2023, replaced the old “Lunacy” framework and set out rights and protections, including prohibitions of discrimination in areas like employment and housing. A law that lives only on paper is theatre. Therefore, federal and state authorities should publish plain language implementation rules, fund oversight bodies, and create reporting channels people can actually use. If the Act promises dignity, then violations must have consequences.
Next, bring care closer, because stigma grows in distance and secrecy. Evidence from Nigeria espoused by Adepoju et al (2023) in their study on New Mental Health Law emphasizes community based services and integrating mental health into primary health care as a practical and cost effective way to expand access and reduce social distance. Also, train primary health workers to screen for depression, substance use disorders, psychosis, and suicide risk, provide brief counselling, and refer severe cases quickly. Similarly, make essential medicines reliably available and affordable, and include mental health in benefit packages so care is not treated as a luxury. And because most care is paid out of pocket, families delay until crisis; insurance coverage would reduce financial panic and stigma. Then change what we reward in public language. Media houses should stop “madman” headlines and stop implying that mental illness explains every violent act without evidence. Ordinary Nigerians should stop forwarding videos of people in distress for entertainment. Replace spectacle with responsibility: share verified helplines, explain warning signs, and amplify recovery stories. Stigma reduction work points to 3 levers that change behaviour: education that corrects myths, contact that humanizes, and protest that challenges discrimination.
The home is where stigma is either broken or reinforced. Families should move from secrecy to safety planning: one trusted person must know the diagnosis, medication plan, appointment dates, and early signs of relapse. Agree on a hard rule: no beating, chaining, starvation, or public humiliation in the name of “discipline” or “deliverance.” Research by Ogunwale et al on indigenous and faith based pathways in Nigeria documents how desperation and spiritual explanations can fuel harmful practices and human rights abuses. Faith leaders and traditional authorities can either deepen stigma or dismantle it. They do not need to become psychiatrists, but they must stop presenting treatment as a lack of faith. A simple script helps: mental illness can have medical causes, prayer can coexist with treatment, and abuse is never “therapy.” In Nigeria, misinformation can escalate into extreme accusations such as “witchcraft,” so public correction matters.
Finally, schools and workplaces must set standards. If HR covers hypertension, it should cover mental health: confidential support, reasonable adjustments during treatment, and clear anti harassment rules. Schools should teach mental health literacy early and show students where to get help. Young people are not immune; a Reuters report in April 2024 citing UNICEF findings highlighted serious mental health challenges among Nigerians aged 15 to 24. Ending stigma is not a slogan. It is choices repeated daily: the words we use, the jokes we refuse, the videos we do not share, the services we fund, and the rights we enforce. Nigeria will end the stigmatization of mental health patients when compassion becomes normal, and cruelty becomes expensive.
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