There is a misconception that a religious person is unlikely to have mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, or panic attack.
That if a believer who has a mental illness seeks help from a clergy or an Imam, who are usually their first point of contact, the obvious course of action would be spiritual healing through exorcism, which is the expulsion of a supposed evil spirit through prayers and chanting.
Many people combine Christianity with African cultures and believe that mental illnesses are caused by malicious or ancestral spirit possession or curses by enemies.
Amisa Rashid Kiligah, a counselling psychologist who works with low-income communities in Kenya, says many patients and their families turn to religious leaders and traditional healers for help than to psychiatry experts.
They believe that a depressed person or someone with schizophrenia is demon-possessed and requires spiritual healing.
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