Invest in your mental health: Nadia Jamil | The Express Tribune

Despite the rampant and horrifying stories of child sexual abuse across Pakistan, many survivors feel compelled by social stigma to keep their silence. In such a climate of false respectability and censorship, media can be crucial in platforming voices that speak truth to power. 

Addressing the matter, Pakistani actor and social activist Nadia Jamil has been an avid responder against child abuse. Remarkably, Jamil’s protest against the pervasive shame culture comes also from her own journey of healing from the traumatic ordeal. Appearing as a guest on a podcast with host Frieha Altaf, the actor shared her candid reflections.

Jamil noted, “The youngest victim [of child sexual abuse] I heard of was a three-day-old child in Dublin or Belfast, I can’t remember. This is nothing new, this disease has been ongoing for centuries.” Criticising society’s failure to confront the grim reality, she said, “It’s disgusting that in this day and age, we don’t have the awareness. We can’t talk about it.”

“How dare anyone tell me I cannot talk about what happened to me when I was a child?” Jamil posed the powerful question, firmly relaying how she owns the experience in the face of stigma. “I talk about it and I talk about it with pride. I say with pride that this happened to me and despite it, look at me. Those people could not take anything away from me.”

The actor maintained that it’s the perpetrators whose honour is compromised and expressed her appreciation for the rising awareness to battle prevailing stereotypes. “I love Emma’s new movement #notmyshame because it’s like taking the MeToo movement to another level. Why should I feel shame? It was never my shame,” she maintained. “It’s the shame that leads to anger that leads to self-esteem breaking down that leads to lack of self-confidence and self-doubt.”

“You don’t need to have gone through childhood trauma and have it be locked in your body… You don’t have to have gone through anything traumatic to invest in your mental health,” Jamil insisted upon the importance of mental health. “The world is not an easy place. Living is not easy. It is exhausting. It is challenging…it requires you to sometimes put up defences. It requires you to sometimes surrender.”

She furthered on, “And you have to be making choices all the time about where my boundaries are going to be and where I draw the line in the sand, et cetera, et cetera. So invest in your mental health, whether that means taking a walk in nature, whether that means going on that holiday by yourself, whether that means speaking to a life coach.”

Jamil also underscored the necessity to find a qualified professional to seek counseling from. She added, “When you give your mind to someone, it needs to be someone who is answerable and accountable to an ethical framework, to an accredited framework.” The Behadd actor swore by credited NLP coaches who offer reliable care to their patients.

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