LGBTI depression — topic for latest Nigerian podcast

Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran living in Southern…

Promo for No Strings podcast about depression. (Click image for the podcast)

Gay men who battle depression must struggle with “dual stigmatisation,” says the Pink Therapy blog — the sense of being shunned both for being gay and for being unwell mentally.

It’s a topic that Nigeria’s No Strings podcast tackles in its latest episode, an interview with Dominic Davies, a therapist, author and founder of the LGBTI-focused therapy and training organization Pink Therapy.

Podcast host Mike Daemon writes about the importance of this topic:

When [Nigerian activist] Bisi Alimi talked about how LGBTIQ persons are prone to depression on his coming out interview with Funmi Iyanda’s – New Dawn, he was actually right, as recent studies has proven that depression is much more common amongst LGBTIQ people, given the way society treats them – using factors like nature, religion, culture etc as a reason to justify their very negative actions.

Bisi Alimi and Funmi Iyanda (Photo courtesy of lindaikeji.blogspot.com)

Being an LGBTIQ person in Nigeria is far worse and one’s chances of getting depressed are pretty high. People who have the means can afford to leave the country with the hope of getting a better life outside the shores of Nigeria. But how about some ordinary people who are not even informed and do not even have the means to leave the country? Some people do not even know that they are depressed and as well lack a better understanding of the illness.

Dominic Davies (Photo courtesy of QXmagazine.com)

Another thing in Nigeria is that it lacks dedicated professionals that LGBTIQ persons can reach out to for professional help when they are troubled — individuals who really understand what goes on in the mind of an LGBTIQ person. Even the few available ones are not open to helping people as they are either really not informed or work within an organization with a political setting and never really do much. So as a result, many resorts to seeking the help of their religious leaders who often complicates things and their approaches off course always does more harm than good, as they’ll always be quick to recommend a religious conversion, ignoring the actual reason why they were contacted and blaming it on homosexuality.

Battling with life, family, and sexuality at the same time could be really depressing and could lead one into doing a whole lot of terrible things, and the worse of it is that, one could take their own life. YES! It is that serious. NOSTRINGS in this episode treats the subject extensively with Dominic Davies of pinktherapy.com –UK’s Largest Independent Therapy Organization that’s working with Gender and Sexual Minorities; he is an experienced well trained certified psychotherapist with an in-depth knowledge in LGBTIQ issues.
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The No Strings podcasts provide a voice for the LGBTIQ community in Nigeria. In addition to the latest episode, titled “And then there was … depression,” see below for this blog’s posts containing links to previous No Strings podcasts.

For this and future podcasts, visit the No Strings podcast website.