In our activist lives, we encounter many high-stress situations: police brutality, arrests, the solitude of a police cell, being cut loose from a lock-on, confrontations with agressive fascists, state surveillance and intimidation, evictions or other forms of oppression. Stress will always affect us in one way or another. Even the most experienced activist could at some point look back and say: this time, it was just a bit too much.
The consequences of high-stress moments are mainly felt on a mental and emotional level (though there might be physical reactions as well). We may find ourselves startled at unexpected noises or irritable with a short fuse for no apparent reason. We may experience difficulties to fall asleep or concentrate. Or digging ourselves into more tasks, more work, more responsabilities even though we feel that we’re already exhausted. Or even worse: irrational fears or panic attacks.
These are all logical and normal reactions to high-stress experiences. The problem is that for far too long, we’ve minimized these reactions and their impact. At the best, we were advised to ‘just take a break’. In the worst case scenario, there was an unspoken taboo on talking about our struggle to deal with those reactions – sometimes because it so ‘uncool’ to admit that we don’t feel okay , sometimes because we simply feel there is no time to talk about it.
Isn’t that strange? We have activist medics to whom we can turn to when we’re injured. We have set up Legal Teams who can help us to deal with juridical consequences of activism.
Well, mental and emotional consequences should be taken just as seriously.
One of the good practices in supporting each other, is to make use of a Support & Recovery Team during actions, alongside with a Legal Team and medics. The task of a S&R team is to support activists who experience strong emotional or mental reactions after high-stress events such as police violence or repression.
Chosing to support each other when dealing with reactions to stress is not only about our personal well-being and daily functioning. It’s also a way of taking care for the activist community as a whole. It is a way of making people felt heard, of being inclusive and caring for one another. It is how we can concretize solidarity, enhance group cohesion and minimize drop-outs.
It is one of the many ways to live the better world we’re fighting for, right here, right now.