Mental Challenges Respect No One!!!

Ava Thelwell
(RIP)

She was Ava Patterson and she became Ava Thelwell when she got married. Yes...the  lady who drove her car into the river at Flat Bridge and took her own life this week, it is reported. I must say I have a soft spot for children. I have the same soft spot for animals. Now that reminds me of that video being circulate of the cruel incident showing someone setting a cat on fire. I also have a very, very soft spot for persons with mental challenges.

Don’t ask me why, because I have asked myself that question many times  and I am not able to answer it. When I saw that video of that car being taken out of the Rio Cobre River after Ava drove her car over into the river, I said to myself, I wish I was there to stop her. Some will comment that why would an intelligent woman do something so stupid. Many of us do not understand that mental illness and specifically depression is an illness which oftentimes requires treatment. There are many forms of mental challenges I understand, and one psychiatrist told me that about 1 in 3 Jamaicans have mental issues.

You have various categories of mental disorders and mental disorders comes in many forms. You have:

• Anxiety disorders
• Mood disorders
• Psychotic disorders
• Eating Disorders
• Impulse control and addictive disorders
• Personality disorders
• Obsessive compulsive disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorders      

Click  Here to learn more about each of these categories of mental disorders.

I plan to ask one of my friends who is a psychiatrist to contribute an article to this blog and to tell us more about these mental issues.

The first thing we need to learn is to identify when our friends and/or relatives are having mental challenges so that we can seek help long before it becomes very serious. I am not a psychiatrist but I have learnt to look out for the following signs:

• Person who have mood swings.
• Person becomes withdrawn.
• General change in someone’s personality and behaviour.
• Someone who has challenge sleeping.
• A spouse has lost interest in sex which sometimes their partner jump to conclusion to say that the person is having an outside affair.
• The person has lost interest in their personal care.
• Person tells you that they are hearing voices and they see persons who are not really there.
• There is a final one that I can think of now and that is that person who always seems happy and pleasant and is always smiling. I believe that many persons like that are just putting on façade to camouflage what they are really going through.

·   One thing we need to understand and that is mental issues respect no one. Persons have told me about Ava Thelwell who the say was a beautiful lady, did well academically but clearly there were challenges. There were challenges which some persons close to her did not pick up. 

Persons studied with her while she was doing her CPA and saw no signs of challenges yet others say that she had mental issues.  One person told me that she was a graduate of the UWI and she was beautiful from head to toe.

One of her classmates said, ”I never saw any red flag....yes, she liked to smoke, and seemed reflective and distant when she did”.

Eva has two boys I understand and they should be in their teens now or early twenties. She is no longer with us but remember what the psychiatrist say that 1 in 3 has mental issues. Today fi mi and tomorrow it could be you. It is a thin line. Walk good my friend and next time if your friend says to you, “I am depressed”, or “I feel like killing myself”, take it seriously because your friend might need help. Look out for those tell-tale signs and be your brother’s keeper.

Eva enjoying a good day

The End at Flat Bridge

Note: I will update you if I get further information.