Uganda: My Mad World Our World

World meet a man who has broken the silence as in courage in other

patients to speak openly about living with mental illness. You may

find parts of this film distressing. Have you heard about the dilemma? --

the die Lallana. Is this ritual leader. The purpose of life is to be

happy. Genesis is a man who is determined to succeed against the

odds. -- Joseph. He is an open every person in an extraordinary

situation. These people are speaking out about something very few people

in their country are willing to talk about, mental illness. I have

bipolar. You see how I become when I relax. -- relapse. Like a tiger. And

when you are low, you are like a pussycat. They live in a country

with only one psychiatrist for every million people. And traditional ways

live on. I command you to come out! These former patients are trying to

find a new way of living. They are swapping isolation and prejudice for

hope. This is my world. I want to tell you my story about going mad in

Uganda and how IM trying to break the silence about people like me.

Joseph Atukunda was studying to become an accountant but something

started going wrong with his mind. I went to a shop, bought some rat

poison, bought a rope, put them in my bag and moved on this every road,

looking for a field like this, when nobody could interrupt me, in order

to commit the act. I intended to take the poison and as the poison

was working, I would use the rope to hang myself. I was really determined

to end my life. But Joseph had a change of heart. All of a sudden, I

got like a vision, I don't know whether from Jesus, Krishna,

Mohammed, all the Buddha, tellingly, you can still seek help, you can

turn around, you can get a taxi back to Kampala, go to a doctor and seek

some help. Maybe there is some Josef didn't understand that his

dramatic mood swings were symptoms of bipolar disorder, as serious but

treatable mental illness. Help is hard to find in Uganda and those

affected are often shunned. This is Kampala's Butabika Hospital, the

only psychiatric hospital in the country. Joseph has been admitted

here many times. When he had manic episodes, he could be aggressive. In

most cases, people in this ward are violent and brought in by the

police. So, I would like to show due some of the places where they put us

when we are violent. And this is called the isolation

room. Just before you are put in this room, you are stripped naked,

injected with a lot of medicine, I thought I was in hell, I thought I

had died and I was in hell. The hospital says it has cut down on the

use of these rooms. Now they are only a last resort. There are 700

inpatients. Men, women and children. Some patients can be violent, a few

have killed. There are also around 150 outpatients every day. It is an

overwhelming work load for the four psychiatrists who treat the patients

here. This morning, this Dr, Josie's psychiatrist, is on duty. Some have

had psychosis related to drug abuse, some are bipolar, some have

schizophrenia, and a few of the patients have mental retardation and

behavioural problems. These of the majority of the patients we have

here. The hospital is free but money for treatment is very tight. The

staff say they are overworked but they do the best they can for their

patients. But there is an overwhelming reliance on medication.

Yes, we tend to use very large doses of medication here to get the

patient is under control and then we manage the side-effects. They may

feel extremely sedated, weak and unstable, they can't walk very

steady. Every day, more patients are brought in. This man, after a

journey of three hours from his village where he had been causing a

disturbance. He has a chronic problem, degree of

self-neglect. She is quite hot and has collapsed. We definitely have to

give him fluids fast. In some way is, this man is lucky. He is now

getting treatment. Hello, how are you? Most mentally ill people here

never go to hospital but they may go traditional healer. Should be around

here. As many as 90% of people in Uganda are thought to believe mental

illness is linked to witchcraft or curses. All these structures are

part of the shrine houses where the treatments are done.

He is coming, he is coming, he is not inside here.

Hallo, Dr. You remember me? Oh. How are you? You are back? Yes, I am

back. I am showing them where I was treated. And maybe you can give us

more information about some of the treatments that you gave me. Thank

you very much. I will not forget you.

Making you could tell me because after I left here, I didn't exactly

know how your medication work. I treated you by tying up your hands,

by putting medicine in your nose, by cutting you lined in your head, by

raising new with all your head covered in blood so I could be you

in medicine. Would you treating some spirits? Was I possessed by some

spirits or was you treating an illness? Definitely you had spirits.

You can kill spirits as if you are killing... Lice. Yes. Some doubles

were on your head, talking so many languages, different languages, you

could not understand who is your mother, who is your father, you

would walk naked. But all of this was covered by me. I remember I've

broke the chain and I ran away. Dr Serwadda mainly uses powders and

infusions but these herbal medicines are not his most powerful remedy.

Now we are going to the place where I move Devils from our patients.

Now, we shall give her time to undress herself. The reason why we

use this cock is that all devils speak and as they speak they have

powers. You can see now how the patient is

raising herself, begging for good spirits to come on her. Josef went

through the same ritual with Dr Sarah Wilder. He is in two minds as

to whether it helped him or not. Everything in this world have

advantages and disadvantages. I was treated in the spiritual healer's

structures and methods that you see here. But I am well now. Even

conventional medicine has its advantages and disadvantages. So, I

can't discard this spiritual healer as somebody who did not contribute

at all. As well as the challenge of getting medical help, people like

Jozef face another serious problem. At certain times in my life, I felt

so lonely. Surrounded by people but they are going about their own

lives, they are not noticing the turmoil you are going through and

you feel so lonely at such times, all by yourself. It can even be hard

for his Stanley Kubrick through. Joseph has four children. Jennifer,

James, Joshua and Jordan. His wife Harriet says when he hit solo,

everyone feels the pressure. Sometimes it is hard but I try to

make it easier. I talked to him. If he is sick, I tell him to go to the

hospital, take the medication, him happy, sometimes I talk to him

in a slow voice, you persuade him, you convince them. Sometimes, you

get challenges. Joseph is lucky, he has Harriet.

Kampala is a Pentecostal Rory Sidey night ministry. Some of Joseph's

friends have been brought here. is run by a charismatic pastor,

Jeffrey. He takes in the sick and the abandoned. But his raging is a

strict one. This woman will be kept shackled until the power of prayer

has taken effect. She is still violent. So, this is why we chain

her. These people are neglected from the families because they are bad.

She has been abandoned. She is totally dependent on the pastor. And

he worried take her to see a psychiatrist. For us, we have seen

the power of God, we are not doctors, we just pray and ask upon

God's powers and wait for deliverance. This is why we don't

take them to hospital, this is why we just keep on praying for them.

And get their deliverance. Pastor Jeffrey believes deliverance comes

through the laying on of hands, to drum out the evil spirits.

In the name of Jesus, I release you from the power of darkness and I am

setting you free. I command you, give up your powers. Rooster!

Rooster! I command you to come out. You have nothing to do with her. In

the name of Jesus... Pastor Jeffrey repeats this ritual every day on the

members of his congregation he is trying to heal.

Back in Kampala, Josef has an appointment at the hospital. In the

past, he too tried the church but he says it didn't work for him. He has

decided to put his trust in modern medicine and receives a monthly dose

of entire psychotic medication. -- anti-psychotic medication. He says

his life is better now. Good. Thank you. And he has taken up swimming to

help him relax. But what has really made a difference is the leap he

took into the unknown. He's changed his attitude to his own mental

condition by talking openly about it and he says it has turned his life

around. This is good exercise! But it is

killing me! Now he shares his experiences with

other former patients who have become his friends. Guys! You have

to keep practising. It is an opportunity to talk about what

troubles them. Locally, people say Mulalu, which literally means you

are mad, you are useless, you are not of any help to society. But

where I come from, people say you are a walking dead, that means you

are as good as dead. Another type stigma is people fearing Jew. When I

am walking on the street at home, there are some people who see me

coming, and they branch off. They don't want to meet me. But they have

no experience that I have beaten somebody. They haven't had it that I

have beaten anybody but they just fear completely with out any

compromise. And in a country where the law still refers to people with

mental illness as idiots, that stigma is hard to overcome. So,

Joseph and his friends have set up a small support group which they have

called Heartsounds. They work in partnership with Butabika Hospital.

Peer support is very, very important, and it is something that

should be given a lot of attention. Whereby the patients themselves

support each other. Because we are expats by experience, we understand

deep inside what happens, which of the psychiatrists are imagining,

which the psychologists are imagining, they study it in books.

But we can give solace to ourselves because this world is about giving

solace to each other. When we meet like this, I know that everyone has

the same problem and we are living like other people. No one can say

that this person is suffering from mental illness, we are doing well,

we are sharing, I'm feeling very happy because of that. My

psychiatrist says I have bipolar. For by life experiences, I go

through highs and lows. I think I have relaxed in the presence of many

of you. You have seen how I become when I relapsed. A tiger. I don't

know. You behave like a tiger when you relapsed. And when you are low,

you are like a pussycat. Sure. That is what I have observed. Have you

heard of the Dalai llama? He says the purpose of life is to be happy.

By the way, a normal person who has never survived a mental illness, who

is not happy, I don't want to be that person. I would rather have

suffered from a mental illness but I am happy. Me, I have never composed

a song, but I go to karaoke. When I am singing karaoke I am happy and

the purpose of life is to be happy. The purpose of life is to be happy!

Karaoke! Karaoke! The World Health Organisation estimates that over 90%

of people with mental disorders in Uganda don't receive medical help.

Karaoke of the highest order! But for those who do, psychiatrist say

that support groups like Josef's can improve the chances of staying well.

Thank you so much. A big round of applause. For uncle Joseph. Hello,

hello! Disses psychosocial support. Medicine alone will produce a

zombie, somebody needs to be supported and feel like a person

here in this group, we are all that. So, what is most important is we

shouldn't feel sorry for ourselves. To say that I am sick, I can't do

this, so we tried to share with each other and encourage each other to

have a better life. I believe in love. I believe in you,

baby. I believe in Mum and dad, and I believe in you.