Drugs and Mental Health Problems among the Roma: Protective Factors Promoted by the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Greater Risk of Drug Consumption among the Roma
1.2. Mental Health Problem Incidence among the Roma
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Communicative Methodology Design
2.2. Participants
2.3. Data Collection
2.4. Analysis
3. Results
3.1. Detoxification
3.1.1. Anti-Drug Discourses: From Contamination of the Body to Illegal Activity
“God made you free, he has given you the freedom to choose, he does not force you, but he calls you. The Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia is a delegation of God on earth to call you, and through the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia God calls you to put your life in order and to get out of the existing mud that brings the sin that there is into the world and that poverty often makes you embrace, because poverty sometimes makes you embrace sin in order to survive. The Church that announces and proclaims a message of cleansing is the voice of God, so that believing it, you can come out from the bad and unhealthy habits.”(Jonathan, 60 years old)
“My son is being raised in the Gospel which is a healthy environment, in which drinking or getting high with drugs is not often seen, nor going out at night and returning at the end of the morning, because in my house it would be inconceivable that my son would do that—never say never—but likewise my child and the children around, too, know that God demands that they stay clean, because our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, so we have to keep it clean. It is something that God demands of us, and our children grow in this environment.”(Samara, 35 years old)
3.1.2. Supporting Environment
“I realized that the road I was taking was not the right one, and when I arrived at the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia, I met people who had gone through my own personal situation and some of them had come out of the anguishing situation in which I found myself, and they were for me a sort of a mirror where I looked at myself. I also found support from people who felt sorry for me and who God put in my way to help me out, to know how to advise me, to have patience (...) and with the help of God and with the love and affection of the brothers and sisters I was able to get out of that dark cave I was in.”(Jonathan, 60 years old)
“At 15 years old, I was not a rascal but I was a sort of a dissolute lad, and I was aware that this would not end well (...) A Roma pastor entered the church and simply bet on me. To be baptized in the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia, you are asked for some requirements that show you have converted to the Gospel, that you see a change in your life. The pastor came and baptized a few young people from the church, except me. At that time, I smoked, I wore earrings, I was a scoundrel... He (the pastor) had been working with me for quite awhile and he had very strong feelings for me, which always I observed, and talked to me about God and that I would regret it and that I could not continue like this. This man spent 15 months as a pastor in the church, and at least every time he saw me he said, ‘Man, you have to convert, you have to start following God, your house is a Christian house and you will end up very badly.’ I did not pay attention to him, but his words remained in my subconscious, and I thought he was right. In addition, I remember that once he explained to me an anecdote that he imagined that I was walking along the edge of a wall, and he told me you are walking, but at any moment you fall and hurt yourself, stop walking around here and start walking on the mainland. All those words remained with me in my subconscious.”(Isaac, 25 years old)
3.1.3. Becoming Role Models
“My father at 31 was a young rascal and a crazy lad with no one around to stop him; he started ingesting cocaine every day and he got addicted, he was hooked for many years, and this had repercussions for gender violence on top of many other problems at home (...) I have not lived it but they explained it to me that my father was nervous (...) My father went to my mother’s town because he wanted to have different friends because he believed that would change him. When my grandmother arrived here, she was a very good Christian and always spoke to him about God. They preached the Gospel to her at church. It was not until my father decided to give God a chance, what in fact occurred was that God was giving it to him. In addition, it completely changed my father. In only 6 months, my father was already raised from candidate to pastor.”(Isaac, 25 years old)
3.1.4. New Social Relations
“My life changed completely. When I observed him, he was also sick, and I observed that with the worship his illness was gradually disappearing. Until there arrived a moment when the doctor said that Pedro was cured, and that it appeared to be a miracle. He had Crohn’s disease and because of that, he gave up medication. From then onwards, there has been a tremendous change at home. I cannot believe it, the way he was and how is he now.”(Carmen, 49 years old)
“A complete change, I had been hooked on drugs for 20 years, whereas today I do not even smoke. Then, in my life, I thought that I would never see myself like this, because I said, I will be 80 and still be like this, however I do not even smoke, so I have given up all my addictions. I do not leave my house, I go out in the morning for a while to the park, for a while with the birds, then to my worship and from here to my house and I do not go out anymore (...) For me, the biggest thing is that I was able to give up all drugs, tobacco, methadone, I have left everything. I think that today, I still do not believe it, you think that you have been hooked for 20 years, and here since I have been in the cult for 6 or 7 years, it has cleaned me up completely. Not a pill to sleep, not even diazepam, that normally that everybody takes it currently, not even that I take to sleep.”(Pedro, 47 years old)
3.2. Mental Health
3.2.1. Promoting a Wellbeing/Happiness Discourse
“Well, they care a lot for her, ‘Calm down’ they say, and they give her advice, ‘that the Lord is with you, you have to get out of this, look at the miracle that God has done to your daughter’ and they are with her, and they advise her. How do you think that this whole process would have been with your daughter’s illness if she had not been in church? She said it with these words, ‘I would have gone to the 13th floor and jump out.’”(Rebecca, 43 years old)
“A girl had a phobia about going out, and I noticed that when I talked to her, it wasn’t me, I noticed that I was speaking on behalf of the Holy Spirit, and every time I spoke to her, the girl felt better. She called me on the phone and explained what was happening to her at that moment, so I started talking to her about God, and she was right on the street and said ‘Pastor, thank goodness you have spoken to me, how much goodness you have given me’ and she carried on with her shopping, with her life.”(Samara, 35 years old)
3.2.2. A Sense of Belonging
“Making up yourself every afternoon, leaving your environment, the monotony, I do not know … the change of our daily environment, going out every evening to congregate with people, to talk to one another.”(Samara, 35 years old)
“I’ve been a very self-conscious girl. People told me I was beautiful, and I looked ugly, but really, I felt it, I was ashamed to speak in a loud voice, I did not have the security or the freedom to speak in front of a group of people and … I kept quiet, I did not speak and in the church you live with many people, spiritually God is truly showing you what you are worth, what we are worth, that it does not matter what your looks are but what you have in your heart, yearnings that you have for God, how brave you can be in the hands of God, because all that helped me overcome my complexes, and today, I can say that I am a person free to speak.”(Samara, 35 years old)
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Pseudonym | Position | Profile Description |
---|---|---|
Rebecca | Female Pastor | A 43-year-old married Roma woman who is a mother of 5 children and a grandmother. Rebecca works as a street vendor and lives with her husband and three of her children. She was baptized when she was 12 years old and has been a female pastor for approximately 12 years. Rebecca has closely experienced the lives of her sister and sister-in-law, two women with depression problems who participate in the IEF. |
Jonathan | Pastor | Jonathan is a 60-year-old Roma man who is married, a father of 4 children, and a grandfather. He is an old-age pensioner who lives with his wife and one of his daughters. Jonathan has been participating in the IEF for 37 years and served as a pastor for 32 years. He experienced a process of detoxification himself. |
Pedro | None | Pedro, a 47-year-old Roma man is married to Carmen, 49. Together, they have two children, and they are grandparents. Both are ex-convicts, and they have been participating in the IEF for about eight years. When they started, Carmen had already left prison and Pedro was still on parole. After 20 years of consuming drugs, Pedro decided to abandon drugs completely. |
Carmen | None | |
Isaac | Pastor | Isaac is a 25-year-old young Roma man who has been a pastor in the IEF for a year. He is married with three children ages 6, 4 and 2 years old. He has attended church since he was a child because he was raised in a Christian family, and his father is a pastor, too. Isaac is a street vendor, and has now entered college. Isaac says that he is the youngest of four brothers and that, although he has never been a drug addict, he has had contact with drugs since a very early age. |
Samara | Female Pastor | Samara is a 35-year-old Roma woman. She is married with three children ages 16, 11 and 5 years old. She lives with her husband and her three children. She is a street vendor and would like to be a psychologist. She left school at the age of 11 and is currently participating in a university access course for people over 25. She has closely experienced the case of her mother, a woman with depression problems who has sporadically participated in the church. |
Rocío | None | Rocío is a 23-year-old Roma woman who lives with her partner, is pregnant and has a daughter from a previous relationship. She participated in the IEF as a girl with her family. Currently she is out of work, and she has completed basic studies. She has overcome depression. |
Isabel | Female Pastor | Isabel is a 44-year-old Roma woman; she is married, a mother of five children and a grandmother. She lives with her husband and three younger children. She has been a female pastor for approximately twelve years. She works in the cleaning sector. She has been participating in the IEF for 20 years. |
Ana | None | Ana is a 45-year-old married Roma woman and the mother of three children, ages 11, 10 and 6. She has always been dedicated to street vending, but right now she does not work. She has finished basic studies. She began to participate in the IEF at the age of fifteen. She says that she started because she has always had nervous problems, and her participation in the Pentecostal denomination helped her mental health, including during serious problems such as having her daughter diagnosed with leukemia. |
Protective Factors | |
---|---|
Detoxification | Anti-drug discourse |
Supportive Environment | |
Becoming role models | |
New social relations | |
Mental Health | Promoting wellbeing/happiness discourse |
A sense of belonging |
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López, J.A.; García, R.F.; Martí, T.S. Drugs and Mental Health Problems among the Roma: Protective Factors Promoted by the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 335. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15020335
López JA, García RF, Martí TS. Drugs and Mental Health Problems among the Roma: Protective Factors Promoted by the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2018; 15(2):335. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15020335
Chicago/Turabian StyleLópez, Jelen Amador, Ramón Flecha García, and Teresa Sordé Martí. 2018. "Drugs and Mental Health Problems among the Roma: Protective Factors Promoted by the Iglesia Evangélica Filadelfia" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 15, no. 2: 335. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15020335