All around the world, wherever you go, there’s stigma surrounding mental illness and mental health. People who suffer from the likeliness of depression, anxiety and such disorders are very reluctant to talk about their problem or ask for help. However, in some regions around the world, the stigma is way heavier than other regions. Unfortunately, Middle Eastern and North African countries fall under the criteria of poor mental health awareness and a very tremendous stigma around the topic. By large, the Middle Eastern locale has its one of a kind sociocultural, religious, and political setting that cannot be overlooked when planning and actualizing mental wellbeing intercessions and utilizing mental wellbeing concepts and speculations (Dardas & Simmons, 2015). This means that …show more content…
When a depressed or anxious person is associated with evil spirits and evil eyes, how do you expect them to be vocal about their mental health? Instead, they will most likely be ashamed and hide their struggle behind closed doors, creating an even bigger problem. For that, the stigma around mental health in MENA is extremely high. According to a survey conducted by Bener and Ghuloum (2011), both men and women in Qatar, a peninsular Arab country, believed that mental sickness is due to being possessed by fiendish spirits. Most of them also thought that conventional healers can treat mental sickness and that individuals with an unstable mental condition are dangerous. On the other hand, Liu, Modrek and Sieverding (2017) discussed an important matter, which is the transition from childhood to adulthood; known as adolescence. The lack of attention to broader health and well-being is a major gap in the Arab population’s understanding of the transition from childhood to