This week on Womanity – Women in Unity, Dr. Amaleya Goneos-Malka talks to Dr. Annette Antwi-Anyimadu, a specialist psychiatrist in private practice at The Couch in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dr. Antwi-Anyimadu offers insights into the intricate connection between mental and physical health, reflecting on the World Health Organization’s holistic definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.”

Dr. Antwi-Anyimadu differentiates between the fields of psychiatry and psychology, explaining psychiatry’s focus on diagnosing and treating mental health conditions through a medical lens and psychology’s emphasis on behavioral studies and talk therapy. She highlights a range of psychiatric conditions she encounters, from mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder to geriatric conditions and notes the complex interplay between genetics and environment on mental health ailments.
This episode delves deeply into the societal stigma surrounding mental health, particularly among men, and the harmful consequences of unprocessed emotions, such as physical assaults on partners. Dr. Antwi-Anyimadu also explores gendered differences in susceptibility to mental health conditions, noting how biological and social influences, as well as hormonal and structural brain differences, play a role. Women have a higher propensity to develop mood and anxiety disorders, such as depression and bipolar mood disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

For women seeking to prioritize their mental health, Dr. Antwi-Anyimadu shares three practical strategies:
1. Embark on a journey of self-discovery to understand personal triggers, motivations, and emotions.
2. Engage in regular exercise and self-care, recognizing that you can’t pour from an empty cup. Physical activity releases brain chemicals that reduce anxiety and depression while serving as a physical outlet for frustrations.
3. Seek professional help when needed—mental health treatment is available and essential for healing and maintenance.

The conversation also touches on systemic challenges, where people with mental health concerns may be stigmatised by their communities or perhaps their issues are dismissed by their families and not considered socially acceptable, and as a result they don’t receive appropriate treatment and support.

Dr. Antwi-Anyimadu reflects on some of the reasons that she chose to pursue psychiatry as a specialisation, highlighting patients’ transformations when they receive the correct treatment. Dr. Antwi-Anyimadu describes some pressures of medical training and raising young children at the same time, and emphasised the importance of her support structures as enablers. She also shares some lived experiences, such as being a young Black female doctor navigating societal stereotypes of what a doctor should look like, recounting how after conducting a full consultation and at the verge of diagnosis the patient asked when the doctor would see them, or on another occasion when a white male colleague entered the consulting room the patient assumed he was the doctor.

Dr. Antwi-Anyimadu is extremely passionate about her field and helping people. She leaves listeners with a powerful reminder, that our value is inherent and cannot be measured by external validation or productivity, “We are valuable simply by virtue of being alive.”

Join us for this thought-provoking discussion as we explore mental health and societal dynamics.

Tune in for more.