Dr. Safaa Mokhtar is a consultant, life coach, and humanitarian researcher, whom we can benefit a lot as she dealt with many people who suffer from mental disorders so she can give us more information about how can we deal with them in the right way to decrease the number of cases of suicide and self-harm that increased among youth because they don’t have someone to talk to. She is also a writer, a permanent member of the Arab Union for Sustainable Development and the Environment of the league of Arab states, and the owner of an initiative called “The Art of shining” That works to awaken the human mind and spread human culture.
Aliaa Mahmoud Attia 20060539
Could you tell me more about yourself, please?
I am Dr. Safaa Mokhtar, a life coach, consultant, humanitarian researcher, writer, and a member of the Arab Union for Sustainable Development and the Environment of the League of Arab States.
I wanted to talk with you about mental disorders among youth and how to increase mental health literacy among them, but first let me ask you how to identify or judge someone who is suffering from mental disorders.
I can diagnose that the person has mental disorders or psychological problems according to specific behaviors, for example, violence, introversion, irritability, querulous, or loud voice, so some human behaviors allow me to judge whether the person is normal or not, and most of us know how the normal person act, I cannot say that the person has a mental illness from only observing his behaviors he may just have a psychological problem as to diagnose a specific mental illness the person should be under the observation of doctors, and most of the psychological problems that youth face is due to the pressure they had at the post-adulthood stage.
What is our role towards people with the behaviors that you mentioned, and how can we properly deal with them?
There must be constant dialogue, rational treatment, and mutual trust. When people have a specific psychological problem, they might have repression because they feel they cannot express their feelings so they will need someone close to them who can help them, so we should give them attention but without intrusion to make them comfortable to talk to me and find a proper way together to resolve the problems or we can find a consultant whether at the university for example or outside.
What about parents, some parents trivialize their children’s problems, so how can we aware parents that these problems may lead their sons and daughters to hurt themselves?
The first gateway to a young man’s mental illness or any mental problem is their home, the lack of understanding and dialogue between youth and their parents to resolve the problems that face them outside the home, and this starts from childhood when a child tells his parents that he suffered from bullying at school, their parents blame them and trivialize what they say or maybe they are busy to listen to them, so parents should enter awareness program even before they have kids, to understand how they should treat their children and how I want them to be, and not just focusing on their career and what profession I want them to be, but the most important part is to raise a stable human being who knows the value of mind and able to face any problem and accept the difference of other, as youth is the future of any country.
Also, when parents listen to their children and respect them this builds self-confidence in them which allows them to face any bullying at school or any bad or different behavior from other people in a rational way.
How can we encourage youth to take the step to go to a consultant or a doctor as many of them are afraid of the medicines that doctors give to psychiatric patients?
I agree with you, and in the past psychiatry and life coaches were not familiar at all but now social media facilitated anyone who wants psychological problem help to search for someone who is an expert and consultant in psychiatry without revealing their identity in case they are afraid to visit a doctor. There are doctors and life coaches who are uploading videos on social media about mental illness so if anyone facing a problem and feel comfortable with one of them, they can contact them and ask for help, but in some conditions, medicine is a must.
What determines whether the patient should take medicine or not?
This can be determined by a psychiatrist, but I am a consultant and life coach so my work doesn’t depend on medicines, I have another technique which is the right dialogue with the patient, and in my opinion, most of the psychological problems that youth have is due to the pressure and accumulations of little things from their childhood that made them feel that they are depressed because they didn’t have enough strength to face it.
How can the country help in increasing mental literacy among people?
It’s supposed that every school has a social worker who talks with the parents if they observe any abnormal behavior from the students and try to resolve it, also the country provides psychologists at discounted centers at hospitals. Media also has an effective factor to persuade people that it is normal to visit a doctor or a consultant.
And finally, we all need someone who can help us and see whether we are right or not and what should we change to be on the right path so we all need to consult, God created us to be all reasons for each other.
Written by: Aliaa Mahmoud Attia
A Healthier You 
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