An Unfortunate World: The Conflict Between Health and Obligation

We are living in a world where we are constantly told that our health issues should come first before our job. Yet, in the very same world, when one seeks reproach or relief from her job on valid health grounds, she is refused and left to face unfortunate circumstances that place her in a void no one can fill.

This contradiction does not end at the workplace. It extends into marriage as well. One raises valid reasons for a release or understanding, yet these concerns are overlooked, treated as insignificant, or dismissed entirely.

What then is this situation termed?

A person battles with her mental health because these are issues that deserve great concern. The weight of being unheard, unseen, and unsupported becomes overwhelming. When such a person goes ahead to commit suicide, only then do whispers begin. 

Questions are suddenly asked: What was troubling her? Why couldn’t she share? Yet, in the same breath, judgment follows — she didn’t do well.

Ironically, these are often the very people she gave reasons to, the same people who saw her concerns as the least important.

This raises a painful but necessary question:

How does one truly prioritize her health while still being expected to meet rigid conditions of service?

This is the unfortunate world we live in — one where health is spoken of as a priority, but rarely treated as one; where cries for understanding are ignored until silence becomes permanent.

Amanda Ama Adjornor 

amaamandaadjornor@gmail.com