Burst the Taboo

The following article is an excerpt from our latest printed Ecosprinter titled Reclaim Your Rights! – The Social Issue. We decided to bring you the articles from this edition in a digital form as well.

In late October 2019, activists with diverse backgrounds gathered at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg, France, for FYEG’s study session “Actions Speak Louder Than Words – Youth Engagement, Grass-roots Activism and the Future of Democracy”. In one of the most emotional and triggering sessions of this week-long seminar, they paused to reflect on the mental health of activists. Out of the personal experiences of the participants and through the brainstorm on post-it notes many thoughts, opinions and concerns were raised. We share some of them with you here below with the hope that they will inspire you to reflect on your life as an activist, to investigate how it affects your mental health, to look out for the activists around you. We can do so much more to take care of ourselves while fighting to fix the injustices in our communities and our world - but to do that, we must make this an open and frequent discussion, free from taboos, stigmas or shame. That’s why we hope you’ll linger on this page a bit longer and think about how this relates to you and how you can help.