Empathy as a prelude to treating post civil war Trauma and Depression

The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and one of the most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism - Hannah Erandt

Recovering from the aftermath of a civil war is not easy. Its not just about physical health. It's not just about rebuilding houses. It's also about mental health. It's also about empathy.

I have always been intrigued by finding solutions to anomalies that I have observed in many aspects of life from work related to those related to the wider society. Its always the little things that people ignore which become a window to what lies behind that window.

When you take toddlers to nursery school, they are taught three key pillars in life. They are taught:

1. To say 'please'

2. To say 'thank you'

3. And 'sharing is caring'

All these 3 pillars relate to empathy in one way or the other. And they are relevant throughout your entire life.

Some people may be quick to dismiss this and say we Somalis don't have those words in our vocabulary. But actually we do in more than one way. When you say 'aboowe' or 'aayo' or 'abkoow' pass me that book, that's equivalent to saying 'please pass me that book'. That's being civil. That's being polite. That's having empathy.

Saying 'thank you' reflects your appreciation of 'goodness'. If you find it difficult to say 'thank you' it means you find it difficult to appreciate 'goodness' or the 'blessings' that surround you. Instead you automatically get attracted to destructive mindset and you see evil around you. It becomes self-fulfilled prophecy that all you see is bad and depression kicks in. This negative energy gets passed onto all those people around you and affect far more people than you can imagine. Empathy becomes a bygone word.

A traditional Somali character has been that whenever there is good fortune or misfortune the immediate family and the extended family share them. This is what toddlers are taught in nursery school that 'sharing is caring'. This is empathy. Even city dwellers have always practiced this despite living separately from their extended families. However, a destructive habit is slowly taking root, whereby individuals will amass wealth while their kith and kin are sleeping on empty stomach and possibly with nowhere to sleep. Someone will find it easy to throw under the bus their kith and kin to achieve a simple political or financial gain. This not empathy.

The solution to the side effects of the civil war trauma lies going back to the building block stages in our lives. By re-learning the three key pillars of life taught to toddlers I believe we will be able to treat the trauma that many people experienced and experiencing in their lives.

If you must, release the pent up emotions that's been building up inside you as the Greeks used to practice through emotional catharsis.

Without empathy we fall into barbarism. Barbarism is a zero sum game whereby we will end up destroying all that's dear to us.

Let's re-learn empathy and practice empathy for a healthy and enduring society.

By Dr Abdullahi Ali Noor(Ameriko) - pharmaceutical regulatory expert with over 25 years of corporate leadership and experience in European/USA Regulatory.