One in two Afghans suffer from psychological stress, the country’s Public Health Ministry said on Sunday citing a survey.
The survey was conducted in 16 provinces of the country, covering 12,666 individuals including aged people and children over the past two years.
The study further revealed that one in five Afghans face failures while performing routine activities.
Feda Mohammad Paikan, deputy minister of public health, said that they cannot be called mentally ill people but warned if the problem is left unaddressed, it would develop into mental disorder.
According to the survey, nearly 5 percent of people suffer from depression, nearly 3 percent from anxiety and over 5 percent from psychological injury. Around 7 percent have suicidal thoughts.
Nicholas Taylor, an official from EU which supported the survey, blamed decades of war, poverty, unemployment and violence for mental health problems in Afghanistan.
This comes another survey on Saturday revealed that Afghans are voicing unprecedented levels of pessimism as hopes fade for the war-torn country’s future.
Asked by Gallup how good they anticipate life to be in five years, Afghans gave an average of 2.3 on a scale with 10 as the best possible — the lowest recorded in any country since the polling organization began such global studies in 2006.
Equally striking, Afghans ranked their current life at 2.7 — the first time Gallup has seen a population predict that life will get worse rather than better.
The figures in the annual study mark a sharp deterioration, with Afghans in 2016 putting their life in five years at 5.4.
The latest survey “reveals just how devastating the negative cycle of poverty and violence has been to Afghans’ daily experiences,” Gallup said.
A mere four percent of Afghans said their standard of living was improving, while 36 percent said they smiled or laughed the previous day — down from 64 percent in 2012.
Gallup took the survey in July in face-to-face interviews of 1,000 Afghans.
