TED演讲：如何在一个排斥情绪的社会中应对焦虑心理

当企业家桑谷·德尔面临太大的压力时，他不得不面对自己内心一些根深蒂固的偏见：男人不应该照顾自己的心理健康。在这个演讲中，德尔分享了他如何在一个排斥情绪的社会中应对焦虑心理。正如他所说：“直面自我的感受并不会使我们变弱——它会使我们成为一个完整的人。”

 演讲者：Sangu Delle

演讲题目：关注心理健康并不可耻

TED视频TED演讲稿

Last year ... was hell.

过去的一年……简直糟糕透了。

It was my first time eating Nigerian "jollof."

我第一次尝试了尼日利亚的“辣椒鱼肉饭”。

Actually, in all seriousness, I was going through a lot of personal turmoil. Faced with enormous stress, I suffered an anxiety attack. On some days, I could do no work. On other days, I just wanted to lay in my bed and cry.

不过说正经的，那时的我正经历着一系列个人危机。面临巨大的压力，我经常会焦虑发作。有的时候我甚至什么都做不了。有的时候，我只想躺在床上哭。

My doctor asked if I'd like to speak with a mental health professional about my stress and anxiety. Mental health? I clammed up and violently shook my head in protest. I felt a profound sense of a shame. I felt the weight of stigma. 

医生建议我和一名心理健康专家谈谈，聊一聊我的压力和焦虑。心理健康？我赌气地不说话，拼命摇头表示抗议。我感觉特别的羞耻。简直无地自容。

I have a loving, supportive family and incredibly loyal friends, yet I could not entertain the idea of speaking to anyone about my feeling of pain. I felt suffocated by the rigid architecture of our African masculinity. "People have real problems, Sangu.Get over yourself!"

我有一个温馨互助的家庭，极其忠诚的朋友，但我居然无法接受这种想法，不愿和朋友聊聊我的痛苦。我好像被所谓非洲男子"刚毅的气概"死死扼住了喉咙。“人们都会遇到各种问题，桑谷。别再硬撑了。”

The first time I heard "mental health," I was a boarding school student fresh off the boat from Ghana, at the Peddie School in New Jersey. I had just gone through the brutal experience of losing seven loved ones in the same month. The school nurse, concerned about what I'd gone through -- God bless her soul -- she inquired about my mental health. "Is she mental?" I thought. Does she not know I'm an African man?

我第一次听到“心理健康”这个词的时候，刚刚从加纳坐船来，成为新泽西州佩迪中学的一名寄宿学生。我刚刚历经了惨痛的悲剧，一个月内失去了七名挚爱之人。当时的校医很关心我的经历——愿上帝保佑她——她仔细地询问了我的心理状况。“她是不是脑子不好？”我暗想。“她难道不知道我是非洲男人？”

Like Okonkwo in "Things Fall Apart," we African men neither process nor express our emotions. We deal with our problems.

就像《解体》的主人公奥贡喀沃，我们非洲男人不在乎，也不会倾诉自己的心情。我们只解决问题。

We deal with our problems. I called my brother and laughed about "Oyibo" people -- white people -- and their strange diseases -- depression, ADD and those "weird things." Growing up in West Africa, when people used the term "mental," what came to mind was a madman with dirty, dread-locked hair, bumbling around half-naked on the streets. 

我们解决问题。于是我叫来了哥哥，嘲笑了一番奥伊博人——就是白人——以及他们奇奇怪怪的毛病——抑郁，注意力缺失症，以及各种“奇怪的症状”。我从小在西非长大，当人们使用“mental”这个词时，大多数指的是疯子，发辫很脏，半裸着在街上闲晃，步履蹒跚。

We all know this man. Our parents warned us about him. "Mommy, mommy, why is he mad?" "Drugs! If you even look at drugs, you end up like him."

我们都知道这样的人。我们的父母曾警告我们远离他们。“妈妈，为什么他疯了？”“嗑药！“哪怕你只瞥一眼毒品，你也会和他一样。”

Come down with pneumonia, and your mother will rush you to the nearest hospital for medical treatment. But dare to declare depression, and your local pastor will be driving out demons and blaming witches in your village.

如果你得了肺炎，妈妈会带你冲向最近的医院接受治疗。但如果你敢说有抑郁症，当地的牧师就会赶来在你们村子大兴法事、除妖降魔。

According to the World Health Organization, mental health is about being able to cope with the normal stressors of life; to work productively and fruitfully; and to be able to make a contribution to your community. 

根据世界卫生组织的说法，心理健康指的是能从容应对日常生活中的压力，高效、有成果地工作；可以为社区做出贡献。

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being. Globally, 75 percent of all mental illness cases can be found in low-income countries. Yet most African governments invest less than one percent of their health care budget in mental health.

心理健康是指情绪、心理和社会关系上的良好状态。全球约75%的精神疾病都发生在低收入国家。然而绝大多数非洲政府在投给卫生保健的预算中，只有不到1%分配给了心理健康。

Even worse, we have a severe shortage of psychiatrists in Africa. Nigeria, for example, is estimated to have 200 -- in a country of almost 200 million. In all of Africa, 90 percent of our people lack access to treatment. As a result, we suffer in solitude, silenced by stigma.

更糟糕的是，非洲的心理医生极其短缺。以尼日利亚为例，全国大概只有200名心理医生，但却有2亿人口。非洲所有国家中，90%的人缺少寻求心理治疗的途径。结果，我们只能孤独地承受着，因感到耻辱而沉默不语。

We as Africans often respond to mental health with distance, ignorance, guilt, fear and anger. In a study conducted by Arboleda-Flórez, directly asking, "What is the cause of mental illness?" 34 percent of Nigerian respondents cited drug misuse; 19 percent said divine wrath and the will of God.

我们非洲人对待心理健康的态度常常是避讳，无视，内疚，害怕，有时还有愤怒。根据阿尔博莱达-弗洛雷斯的一项调查，当问到“心理疾病的成因是什么”，34%的尼日利亚受访者表示是药物滥用；19%认为是神的愤怒和旨意。

12 percent, witchcraft and spiritual possession. But few cited other known causes of mental illness, like genetics,socioeconomic status, war, conflict or the loss of a loved one. The stigmatization against mental illness often results in the ostracizing and demonizing of sufferers. Photojournalist Robin Hammond has documented some of these abuses ...in Uganda, in Somalia, and here in Nigeria.

12%认为是巫术附身。但是极少有人提到一些已知的心理疾病的成因，如遗传原因，社会经济地位，战争，冲突，或者失去心爱的人。对心理疾病的污名化常常导致人们对患者的排斥和妖魔化。摄影记者罗宾·哈蒙德记录了一些这样的场景，在乌干达，索马里，以及尼日利亚。

For me, the stigma is personal. In 2009, I received a frantic call in the middle of the night. My best friend in the world -- a brilliant, philosophical, charming, hip young man -- was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I witnessed some of the friends we'd grown up with recoil. I heard the snickers. I heard the whispers. 

对我来说，这种耻辱深刻的影响了我。2009年，我在半夜接到了一个令人惶恐的电话。我世界上最好的朋友——一个睿智、深沉、迷人、时尚的小伙子——被诊断为精神分裂症。我看到那些曾经朝夕相处的发小们开始躲闪。我听见了笑声。我听见了窃窃私语。

"Did you hear he has gone mad?" (Kru English) "He has gone crazy!" Derogatory, demeaning commentary about his condition -- words we would never say about someone with cancer or someone with malaria. Somehow, when it comes to mental illness, our ignorance eviscerates all empathy.I stood by his side as his community isolated him, but our love never wavered.

“你听说他疯了吗？”“他一定是脑子坏了！”各种关于他情况的难听的议论——那些我们从不会对癌症患者或者疟疾患者说的话。不知怎的，当我们说起心理疾病时，我们的无知抹去了所有的同情心。尽管他的社区孤立了他，但我仍然站在了他那边，我们的心从未动摇。

Tacitly, I became passionate about mental health. Inspired by his plight, I helped found the mental health special interest alumni group at my college. And during my tenure as a resident tutor in graduate school, I supported many undergraduates with their mental health challenges. 

渐渐地，我开始关注心理健康。受到他窘境的启发，我帮助自己所在的大学创立了心理健康特别兴趣校友团。在我担任研究生常驻导师的期间，我帮助了许多本科学生渡过心理层面的难关。

I saw African students struggle and unable to speak to anyone.Even with this knowledge and with their stories in tow, I, in turn, struggled, and could not speak to anyone when I faced my own anxiety, so deep is our fear of being the madman.

我曾遇到过非洲学生忍受着内心的挣扎，却拒绝同任何人交流。即使我已经有了一些认知并了解了他们的故事，我反而也开始挣扎了，面对自己的焦虑时，同样地也拒绝交流。我们太害怕成为疯子了。

All of us -- but we Africans especially -- need to realize that our mental struggles do not detract from our virility, nor does our trauma taint our strength. We need to see mental health as important as physical health. We need to stop suffering in silence. We must stop stigmatizing disease and traumatizing the afflicted.

我们所有人——不仅仅是我们非洲人——需要认识到，心理斗争并不会削弱我们的力量，心理创伤也不会消磨我们的意志。我们要对心理健康和身体健康一视同仁。我们再不应该在沉默中受苦。我们必须停止歧视心理疾病，停止伤害已经饱受折磨的人。

Talk to your friends. Talk to your loved ones. Talk to health professionals. Be vulnerable. Do so with the confidence that you are not alone. Speak up if you're struggling. Being honest about how we feel does not make us weak; it makes us human.

请告诉你的朋友。告诉你爱的人。去和健康专家谈谈。做个不那么坚强的人，并且相信，你并不孤单。大胆说出你内心的挣扎。直面内心的感受并不会使我们变得虚弱；反而会使我们成为一个完整的人。

It is time to end the stigma associated with mental illness. So the next time your hear "mental," do not just think of the madman. Think of me.

是时候停止对心理疾病的污名化了。当你下次听到“心理”这个词，不要仅仅想到那个疯子，也想想我吧。

Thank you.

谢谢。

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