Every year, more and more young women are getting sick from exhaustion. In the debate we are often asked to dare to talk more about this, but what to do when the problem is not daring?
When the problem is rather to realize, and acknowledge, that one can get sick from stress?
I watched the Mission Review miniseries Sick stress the other day and admire the strong women who have chosen to participate in the program. It is admirable how they openly share something that is personal and difficult to talk about.
The series is well done and I think everyone should see it to get an insight into what it really is to live with exhaustion. However, I lack representation - and this is something I miss in all public debates about mental health.
We are many women with different backgrounds than ethnic Swedes who live with exhaustion and our perspective is never raised in public.
Many people live in an environment where knowledge about mental ill health is low and where one often does not even recognize the existence of the disease.
How should we dare to talk about something when our surroundings with emphasia tell us that what we want to talk about does not exist? This will be another step to tackle while trying to get a grip on our disease state.
In an interesting debate article, Rokibath Alassane wrote that mental illness in the African diaspora is seen as a luxury - and I can only agree.
Mental ill health is thus seen as a problem that exists in the western world and that does not concern us. Addressing and relating to this as sick is extra difficult and it can even make one even sicker.
Why is there no more talk about this? Why don't we talk about the mental health attitudes that are based on cultural and social norms and affect many young women and men in our society today?
Many also feel guilt and shame because one's parents flee from war, torture, oppression. How can we sit here in the fantastic country of Sweden and feel bad when our parents have had it so much worse?
Why do we no longer talk about how the refugee children, who are born and raised in Sweden, are affected by mental ill-health because of what the parents have been through?
I want to hear and read more about these stories!
I run a network myself that lifts this perspective and many women I meet feel that they are forgotten in the public debate, but there is also a lack of knowledge about these factors in other instances.
I often meet and talk with young women who cannot relate to what is written and debated in public, even though they themselves are affected by mental illness.
Women who do not feel understood when seeking care.
It is this that results when the ignorance is large and perspectives are excluded and it is regrettable, since in some cases it is crucial for an affected person's recovery process.
I do not write this text to criticize or reduce the Assignment Review series. I write this text to highlight women who live between two cultures and who struggle with exhaustion, but with completely different conditions than what is presented in Swedish media today.
Our stories count as much as anyone else and it must be heard in the public room!