Nigerian Rapper Oludemilade Martin Alejo, popularly known as Ycee, has opened up about his challenging experience battling bipolar disorder, revealing that the condition led him to take a break from music for several years.
The rapper made the disclosure during an interview with Arise TV, where he revealed that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2020 while he was in London during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Ycee explained that he spent about three months moving in and out of hospitals before returning to Nigeria to continue his treatment after facing visa-related restrictions.
“I was in and out of hospital and went through different diagnoses before we arrived at that,” he said.
He also spoke about how challenging it is to access care in Nigeria; he said the lack of qualified mental health personnel made it difficult to continue his treatment after he left London.
He noted that, unlike the United Kingdom where mental health support services and helplines are more readily available, Nigeria has a shortage of mental health professionals, making it difficult for people dealing with conditions such as bipolar disorder to access timely and proper care.
“One thing that really stood out in London then was, as much as they were pushing on Covid-19, they were also pushing on mental health. They had helplines for people to call too,” he said.
The rapper said that plans to continue his treatment in Lagos were cancelled because of a shortage of specialists in the country’s mental healthcare system.
“I think that in 2024, I might be wrong, but there are very few staff within the mental health sector, like psychiatrists, psychologists, and people that are supposed to be servicing in those fields,” the singer added.
Ycee also expressed concern over the stigma attached to mental health issues, stating that many people still dismiss depression as “a big man’s disease”.
“Where a lot of people think that when you are depressed, it is a big man’s disease, there’s a lot of stigma around it. Recently, people have been asking me why I have been speaking about this,” he concluded.