“Call the shaykh! There’s a jinn in her!”

The belief that mental problems are attributed to a lack of faith, spirit possession, bad karma, and the evil eye is strongly engrained in many non-Western cultures. This may encourage families and individuals to avoid seeking help for their psychological problems for fear that they will shame their family or that they are revealed as being weak. Some cultures also believe that admitting to having a mental health problem is a form of loss of face and shameful. (Aloud & Rathur, 2009; Cauce et al., 2002; Sarfraz & Castle, 2002; Vogel, Wade, & Hackler, 2007)

“It’s all my fault”

“It’s all my fault.” This misconception around mental illness makes us believe that we spilled the coffee when in actuality, it was the table with a missing leg. But this isn’t easy to understand when all you can focus on is the coffee mug.

Liver and Other Weird Treatments

Many of us know the story of Hajar’s (peace be upon her) plight to find her baby some nourishment. She didn’t just calmly search for some water. She frantically ran between the two mountains or hills (I forgot what they were exactly) scanning for any sight of food for her wailing baby. In my head, this story was only theoretical but as I entered the mental illness advocacy field, this story became an experiential one.