Some tools for mental health care in activism
- Some activists have compiled the impatience of activists and created a guide to address them collectively. They have worked on issues such as stress, fear, frustration and fatigue.
A guide titled Self-Management of Mental Health in the Context of Activism is boldly circulating on social media. It is made in a collective and goes unsigned. The purpose of the Guide is to provide a means of preventing unrest that may arise during militancy or to manage unrest that may arise. To do this, they passed a survey among activists to collect the discomforts associated with militancy. Subsequently, another survey was sent to psychology professionals to collect tools to deal with these situations.
There are many noises that activists have mentioned, such as stress, feeling overwhelmed, exhaustion, anger, feeling that what they are doing is not enough or is useless, frustration, lack of motivation, the need to stop and isolate, and anxiety. The guide was intended to provide tools to address all of them. However, it must be taken into account that there are more resources than those included in the guide, and that each person and each group must identify what makes them good and what doesn’t.
Some of the most recurring concerns are stress, exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities, and the feeling of not reaching your goals. The guide says that in a situation like this, the most important thing is to stop and identify what happens to you and what you need: “We have to make contributions to activism from our real resources, not just from our desires.”
"We have to set goals according to the situation we have at the moment or divide a big challenge into smaller challenges"
Listen to the signs
The guide recommends that you follow the signs. For example, analyze how much work you have in general; how many responsibilities you have at work, in militancy, in care and others, and whether or not they can be reduced. As for the areas of militancy, talking to the members of the team and redistributing the work can help: “We have to set goals based on the situation we have at the moment or divide a big challenge into smaller challenges.”
Other measures can be taken, such as stopping if necessary, seeking support among members, revising beliefs and challenges, and moving away from the capitalist model: “You have to review whether you have fallen into the narrative of capitalism and seek super-productivity in militancy.”
The struggles are very long and along the way it can happen that you feel that the militancy does not make sense or is useless. According to the Guide, it is important to focus on “small” achievements and rely on the process to achieve the goal: “Sometimes we don’t see it, but planting it is really important.” They add that there is a need to get out of individualism because one or a few people cannot do everything.In addition, this can lead to a loss of motivation for the militants of the group, so the search for other more “interesting” ways to continue fighting can help.
The guide also addresses the psycho-emotional damage that police violence inflicts on militants. For example, the loss of trust in the whole world after an infiltration. This can make you distrustful of everyone, which can cause problems if you don’t adjust to reality: “Unfortunately, it’s not up to us to let other people lie. And despite the many precautions taken, it is difficult to identify. However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have to take basic precautions.” At the same time, police raids, arrests and the like can also lead to insecurity, bad dreams and a sense of vulnerability. Creating spaces to talk to team members can help.
Measure the limits
All these concerns influence the dynamics of the group, which is why they recommend reviewing how the responsibilities are distributed, what energy or strength the group has, whether the group takes more than it can and what communication channels exist. It is possible to create communication spaces and dynamics to share all of them. Always listening to each other, respecting each other, not judging each other and offering each other support.
Identifying your own boundaries can also help. How to set boundaries? According to the guide, there are two things to consider: “I have to identify what I don’t want to give up and what I don’t want to do.” By identifying them, it will be “easier” to know what is affecting your health, what actions or things are harmful to you, and many other things. If another member sets these limits, thinking about what one’s reaction will be can help ease the fear of others’ reaction.
However, the guide states that it is not always easy to identify needs, limitations and uneasiness. For this reason, they recommend that when one cannot, ask for help from those around him or her and/or, where possible, ask for professional help.
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