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 specifically depression an illness that oftentimes requires treatment. I understand many forms of mental challenges, and one psychiatrist told me that about 1 in 3 Jamaicans have mental issues.

You have various categories of mental disorders and mental disorders come 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 learned to look out for the following signs:

The person who has mood swings.

The person becomes withdrawn.

The general change in someone’s personality and behaviour.

Someone who has challenges sleeping.

A spouse has lost interest in sex and sometimes their partner jumps to the conclusion to say that the person is having an outside affair.

The person has lost interest in their care.

The person tells you that they are hearing voices and they see persons who are not there.

There is a final one that I can think of now: that person who always seems happy and pleasant and is always smiling. I believe that many people like that are just putting on a façade to camouflage what they are going through.

· One thing we need to understand and that is mental issues respect no one. Persons have told me about Ava Thelwell who they say was a beautiful lady and did well academically but clearly, there were challenges. There were challenges that 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 remembers what the psychiatrist says 1 in 3 has mental issues. Today is me 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.