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The World Health Organization defines stress as "any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain "
It is a feeling of pressure.
Being a Nigerian is stressful enough.
It is like a love story. Like Real Madrid and the UEFA champions league trophy. Like Messi and individual awards. Like Usain bolt and smashing sprint records. It's a match made in heaven. Once you get birthed here it comes with an automatic stress ticket that guarantees you a life of continuous stress. It is our everyday reality. I don't think you will ever stop being stressed here. It's the way of life. From waking up. Getting what to eat. Being in the middle of an overwhelming fuel scarcity. Getting a work done. Trying to achieve a goal. Its always stressful here.
Then you start to wonder if there's something you are not doing right. Or if there's a manual to follow that you are not following. Or you begin to wonder if you came in through the back door. And the thoughts go on and on.
I think as a Nigerian handling stress comes naturally. It is because to you stress is normal. You never snap out of it. You just suppress it a bit.
I am of the opinion that a typical Nigerian between the age of 22 to 35 has fallen into depression once whether knowingly or unknowningly ( Don't ask me how i came up with those numbers. It's from the bureau of imaginary statistics 🌚).
You might not know because it comes with your everyday life. From the non-existent power supply, to the poor road networks and never ending traffics, to the erratic public transportation, the overworked and underpaid low-income earners, high cost of living, the list is endless. Then you wonder if this how you are going to going on. All these calls for stress. And then you are stressed but you are scared to get sick. And then you are stressed when you are sick because .... You can go on and on and on but asking for a particular episode is like asking which is the most memorable. Which of them stuck. I can't really pick which comes first.
Can't say if it was when I was sick and down. At the time the situation seemed really surreal but then it was happening. Like you won't believe it but it's happening. I was sick. I had ailments and I know I needed medical attention. Mind you as a adult Nigerian people just care enough to know that you are alive. Nobody cares about you that much. But you have to be strong. You have to fight it. With no money. Work to do. Limited time. I needed to stay alive. Took permission from work to go to the hospital. Getting there and just the process alone is a marathon of stress. Get there. Queue up. Get your card. It's like one day one process. And you consider it successful because it could have been much worse. So something that could have been done a day takes you a week. First day you have to see the doctor. Next day you do your tests. You are told to come back in 4 days time for your tests results. The whole process takes up to a week. Could have been longer but because you knew somebody it was facilitated. So a week off work. Reduction in salary. Wasting your limited funds. You are getting knocked off but you stay wrong.
One time I was traveling to meet someone in another city. A seven hour journey. No precise venue.
The Nigerian in you tells you it's a scam. So you decided to make enquires. When you finally find out it's not, the person is angry because you didn't come when you were supposed to. So the whole thing doesn't work. You are in the middle of nowhere. You are stranded. Stress is dealing with you in a stylish but terrible way.
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The story is endless. The average Nigerian is always stressed. You cannot run out of episodes. There's enough content.
So you develop ways to handle stress. I discovered these coping mechanisms. They might not be ideal. Or healthy but they have working for me. I mean, to an extent. So here.....
No1, Not taking stock. literally. Just decided I am not about to think . No thinking of where I am going to. Where I am coming from. Distance covered and all that. I just stop taking stock. Don't calculate how much I am making. How much I am spending. Whether or not I have savings.
Not sure it's a good advice but I adopted it for my sanity. You know there was a point I thought I was going mad because nothing made sense, and the more I was trying to make it make sense the more I more it got senseless. So I lived one day at a time. Just do the task for the day . I know it sounds unhealthy but it's one I have adhered to.
No2, The good thing about being a Nigerian is that there will always be distractions. You go online and you read trending stories. Funny videos. Go to comment sections and you see various school of thoughts. Some you find amusing. Some you find crazy. You are distracted and to an extent you are relieved.
No3, I meet up with friends. I have my group of friends. We have our own Whatsapp platform. It's like a rehab center. We plan our get-together/ hangout. We also come to share our problems. You will find out you are not the one with the most problems. Share our wins. Share our losses. Go out. Have fun. There we have a reason to keep going. It relieves. Talking to friends. Laugh at your foolish mistake. Have a good time. Serves as an informal rehab session. It sure helps relieve stress.
No4. Drink water. Drink enough water. Hydration really helps a lot. Water calms down my system.
These are the ways I cope with my continuous stress cycle. Continuous because as a Nigerian in Nigeria it's continuous. It never stops.
They may not be healthy or a 100 percent reliable. But they have proven to relieve m from the shackle of stress a few times.
Looking forward to hearing from others about how they cope with their own stress patterns. I am sure I will be able to copy a thing or two.
Soo... That's that.