Mr Richard Avadetsi, Deputy Director of Nursing Services in charge of the Psychiatry unit of the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital on Tuesday urged Senior High School Students to observe healthy living habits to avoid mental illnesses.

Mr Avadetsi asked the students to eschew the habit of smoking Indian hemp, (Wee), abuse of drugs such as Tramadol, “Ataryar” and excessive alcohol consumption among others, and said indulging in such habits was harmful to the human body and could lead to mental illness.

Mr Avadetsi said observing healthy lifestyles such as personal hygiene, good eating habits, physical exercises to promote high body performance, good personal relations with people in society among other things would foster perfect body efficiency to prevent any forms of mental illnesses.

Mr Avadetsi made the call during an outreach programme to some educational institutions in Bawku to create Awareness on mental health diseases and to mark the National Mental Health day on the theme: “Depression and Suicide: Let’s talk about mental health”.

Addressing students of the Bawku Technical Institute, Bawku Senior High School and the Bawku Senior High Technical School and some basic educational institutions in the area, Mr Avadetsi pointed out that good mental health had relevance on academic work because as far as the mind was stable, one could absorb the lessons taught in class and would perform better academically.

He mentioned that the negative effects of substance abuse were enormous on the individual, and said it would inject instability and inconsistencies into the individual which could form part of the mental disorders.

Mr Avadetsi hinted that schizophrenia, anxiety, generalized seizure, dementia, delirium, bipolar Parkinson’s, anorexia, bulimia elevoorsa, autism, nocturnal enuresis, depression, and suicide among others were forms of mental illnesses and that much attention must be given to people who suffer such disorders.

He urged the students to adopt the habit of going in for routine mental checkups and report any form of mental illnesses to the nearest psychiatrist for attention.

Mr Avadetsi urged the students to focus on their studies and said that would be the best way to become good human resource to the development of the country.