Mental Health in Islam - undoing the taboo

This week marks Children's Mental Health Week. According to Mental Health UK, between one in every ten children between the ages of 5 and 17 suffer from a psychiatric disorder. These illnesses are likely to persist into adulthood. But unfortunately in Islam mental health isn’t something that is readily discussed like many other issues. There is a stigma attached to the thought of being mentally ill. But, it exists. Allah even mentions the word ‘majnoon’ in the Quran, which literally translates into being mentally ill. VOC’s journalist Aneeqa du Plessis has spoken to a Hafitha who deals with mental illness daily, and how she has learned to grapple with it.