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Youths open up about anxiety and how they deal with it on Sunday event
A non-profit organization is helping youths address and share their experience with anxiety disorder through informal gatherings.
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Anxiety disorder affected more than 8 million Indonesians in 2017, according to data from the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx). (Shutterstock/Jess Rodrigues)
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day off on Sunday doesn’t always mean lazing around or engaging in a hobby for dozens of youths who gathered behind a cafe in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta. For them, it is a time to share their struggles with social anxiety.
The recent Sunday gathering was held by Alpas, a non-profit mental health services organization that aims to tackle the social stigma surrounding mental illness to prevent people with mental disorders from feeling left behind.
Alpas was established in January 2019 and has since held regular discussions about mental health.
Rio Yoga Sadewa, a participant from Bogor, West Java, who attended Sunday's event, said he had been living with anxiety disorder for years, but he had recently found a way to cope with and control his condition during a relapse.
“I found that self-talk really comes in handy. Whenever I feel the anxiety kicking in, I take the time just to be quiet, take deep breaths and talk to myself about whether [the issue] deserves stressing about or if I can just go on with my day,” he told The Jakarta Post.
He said that he had experienced a childhood trauma that made him nervous around people, especially talking in front of people.
“It took me two years from admitting that I’d been suffering from social anxiety to finally discover a way to control it,” said the 25-year-old.
