At TWLOHA, we’ve learned that experiencing violence can have a serious impact on mental health. Being the victim or even the witness of abuse, assault, and attacks of any kind can lead to depression, anxiety, and PTSD. While we believe counseling, treatment, and support are key in overcoming these issues, there are also systemic problems that need to be addressed, especially for the world’s most vulnerable and impoverished communities. We have to recognize that the cost of violence is not only physical, but psychological and economic as well.
Our friends at International Justice Mission partner with local authorities in the developing world to rescue victims of violence, hold criminals accountable, restore survivors, and strengthen justice systems. Their president, Gary A. Haugen, just released a new book called The Locust Effect, which discusses how violence plagues the poorest people around the world.
Here’s what The Locust Effect has to say about the devastating link between violence and mental health in developing countries:
“Violence significantly raises levels of depression, suicides, panic disorders, alcohol and substance abuse/dependence, and post-traumatic stress disorders — to a point that the poor endure levels of psychological damage comparable to living in a war zone. The locusts of violence do not simply destroy your financial prospects—they destroy your life. This is perhaps the greatest catastrophe of all, for the greatest devastation of violence is invisible —it is the destruction of the person inside. For victims of slavery, forced prostitution, sexual assault, and other intensely violent forms of oppression, the psychological wounds of trauma are invisible; they receive almost no treatment in poor communities; and they do not simply ‘heal with time.’”
What if we could stop the violence before it starts by fixing broken justice systems?
That’s the question The Locust Effect seeks to answer, and you can learn more about it here. As the video below says, “Everyone deserves to be safe. You can help.”