HannahJoyTV — On World Mental Health Day, members of the Eritrean diaspora kicked off a worldwide conversation on social media to raise awareness. The leaders behind the conversation are: Ruthie Semere – Coach and Mental Health and Wellness Advocate (Swedish Eritrean), Adiam Tekeste – Founder of Eritrea Stole My Heart/@EritreaStoleMyHeart (American Eritrean), Dr. Yacob Tekie – Ph.D. Psychologist, Counseling and Psychological Services (American Eritrean), University of Pennsylvania and Mikal Woldu – Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology, Community Engagement and Mental Health Advocate (Italian Eritrean). Their photos are shown respectively in the feature image. They’re on a mission to educate the community and shed light on mental health resources. Below you will find a Q&A shedding light on their mission with words of advice for families.
1) What led you to starting the #EriWellBeing conversation on World Mental Health Day? And what does the hashtag promote?
Ruthie Semere, Coach and Mental Health and Wellness Advocate:
I have wanted to raise awareness about mental health in the Eritrean community for a long time. I have always been passionate about the subject of wellness, particularly as I’ve had my own experiences with poor mental health and have observed a lot of Eritreans that are struggling too, refugee and 2nd generation communities alike.
I also noticed the lack of openness on this topic, and how much that is hurting our community so I decided to do something about it with the help of Mikal, Yacob and Adiam. I remember that I was isolated when I was going through depression, not because I don’t have loved ones, but because I was ashamed to talk about it. I decided that after that experience that I didn’t want anyone else to feel that way and that I would do my part in creating more transparency about mental health through sharing my own story and my knowledge about mental health.
Mikal and I were brainstorming one day and landed on the word wellbeing which to me/us encompasses all the different aspects of health; physical health, mental health, spiritual health and balance. This led us to create #EriWellBeing as the lead hashtag for this campaign and for this conversation, we hope that it lives on beyond this campaign and becomes an identifier for us and for the continuous conversation about mental health. World Mental Health Day (10th Oct) seemed like the perfect day to start this campaign on social media.
2) Why should people take mental health seriously everyday of the year? And what do you say to people who don’t believe in mental health?
Dr. Yacob Tekie, Ph.D. Psychologist, Counseling and Psychological Services, University of Pennsylvania:
In general, mental health can affect every part of our life, including they way we think, feel and behave, as well as work, relationships, productivity, concentration or health. Often, due to cultural and religious factors, people focus more on physical health.
This is truer among Eritreans/Ethiopians or people from collective cultures where talking about mental health is considered a weakness or a challenge against God or higher power. This is the source of stigma and discrimination that gets on the way of seeking help. The reality is, there is a strong connection between our physical health and mental health. For example, someone with heightened anxiety often becomes vulnerable to physical illness such as cold or flu, because the immune system goes down. Or someone with high blood pressure or a heart problem are highly likely to experience stroke or cardiac arrest if they are vulnerable to stress.
I see these often in my line of work with college students and refugees. I don’t believe anyone is immune to mental health problems, it just differs how you respond to it. Mental health doesn’t discriminate based on age, gender, race or nationality. If you ignore your mental health, it’s like smoke, it always finds a way to let itself out, either as a panic attack, disturbed sleep, depression, losing appetite or binge eating, headache etc. We are in a time where science is screaming loud and clear that life is about balance and we can’t ignore our mental health.
For those who struggle to seek help or don’t believe in mental health, I would say, it is OK, you are not alone. It is not a weakness to seek help or experiencing some distress doesn’t make you a less of a human. Taking care of your mental health doesn’t necessarily mean you have to see a psychologist or psychiatrist. It might mean for you to exercise, eat healthy, staying away from drugs and alcohol etc.
3) Mental Health concerns impact people worldwide, yet there’s still a lot of stigma around it. How can communities reduce the stigma?
Mikal Woldu, Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology, Community Engagement and Mental Health Advocate:
I find that people are often afraid of the unknown, and a lot of the time, information is not as readily accessible in a way that it is relatable and culturally relevant to migrant communities. For my doctoral studies I have worked closely with members of the Eritrean communities in London (UK) and Milan (Italy), and in both countries there was some sense of awareness that many experienced poor mental health.
That applied not only to the more recent refugees, but also to those who had migrated over the last 30 years. What I came to realise however, was that across generations, most Eritrean migrants did not have a ‘language’ to express what they experienced.
To me, stigma can be reduced by engaging the various communities in workshops, seminars and similar initiatives that are organised by members of the communities themselves and in the relevant language. Representation matters, and I believe that it is crucial for us to have those conversation in the public and openly, and to lead them ourselves. I know that our culture does not exactly encourage us to openly discuss our private business, but if we were to normalise those conversations as we did of our physical health, I think it would impact the overall wellbeing of our communities in a positive way.
4) For anyone struggling, what resources and support would you direct them to?
Dr. Yacob Tekie, Ph.D. Psychologist, Counseling and Psychological Services, University of Pennsylvania:
I think, for most people, especially those who are in the western countries, have plenty of resources to use. Of course, there is a systemic, cultural and linguistic challenges, but there is some help there. With my colleagues across the world, we are working on organizing some resources for the Eri-Ethio community where they could reach out for help.
To the best of my knowledge, there are only handful of mental health professionals in the Eritrean community across the world and this is much smaller in number when it comes to bilinguals (e.g., English-Tigrigna). Thus, we have to maximize our internal resources by creating awareness, increasing our knowledge to break the walls of stigma and discrimination.
With few colleagues, I have been doing mental health workshops in major US cities and few European countries and I’m planning to continue providing workshops at least in five to six cities in 2019. More importantly, individually or collectively as a community, if you could offer few minutes of your time to listen and support our friend or family member who is struggling with mental health issues, I think it would solve a lot.
5) How can people get involved in this conversation?
People can get involved on Instagram using the hashtag #eriwellbeing. The campaign ran on @eritreastolemyheart which we are so grateful for to have this large megaphone to be able to speak about mental health and reach more people. You can also follow @eriwellbeing on Instagram where we plan to share content about mental health continuously after the campaign. Feel free to reach out to us on Instagram if you have any questions or if you’d like to share your story: @ruthiezerai, @mikal_miki, @yacobt, @eritreastolemyheart.
