Women, psychological suffering and suicide: a feminist look
Time.news of the conferences organized by the Canary Institute of Equality on October 6 and 7 of last year. Published in the nº 3 of Encuentro Magazine of the year 2022.
On October 6 and 7, the conference ‘Women, mental suffering and suicide: a feminist perspective’ was held in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, organized by the Canarian Institute for Equality, which brought together experts, artists and activists to talk about health mind and gender.
Women belonging to different initiatives at the state level on mental health and feminism, met to share, debate and learn about the models of femininity and how they affect the mental health of women, in a meeting that also featured artistic expressions, in form of theater, drawing and poetry. They dealt with issues such as gender roles, psychiatric violence, overmedication, stigma, and the need for prevention, activism, and a multifactorial approach to the psychological suffering of women. Likewise, various support resources and initiatives to promote, care for, and attend to mental health from a feminist perspective were shared.
maria del riopresident of the Commission for Social Rights, Equality, Diversity and Youth of the Government of the Canary Islands, and Kika Smoker, director of the Canary Islands Institute for Equality, were in charge of inaugurating the conference. The first day, Maria Asunción González de Chávez Fernándezprofessor at the ULPGC, researcher, writer and expert in gender and health, stressed the multifactorial nature of the health-disease process, called for a comprehensive approach to health and highlighted the importance of public and preventive health policies. “The body replaces the unspoken word, the unexpressed complaint”explained González de Chávez, “He becomes a speaker of that suffering.”
«The body replaces the unspoken word, the unexpressed complaint»
The representatives of different mental health associations and groups: Eva Ronceroof the Mejorana Association, Fatima Masoud Salazarfrom Mad Pride Madrid, Viviana R. Carmonafrom Asociación Activament y Carmen Agrafojo Betancor from Bipolar Association from Las Palmas, encouraged to overcome labels and promote activism in the first person to make visible and confront the violence suffered by women. The importance of asking for help and that there are accessible and specialized care facilities was also stressed. Pilar Aparicio AzcarragaDirector General of Public Health, presented the telephone number 024, for attention to suicidal behaviour, and explained that women are the ones who resort to it.
Andrea Momoitiojournalist coordinator of Pikara Magazine and author of Lunatica, presented the monograph “Locura”, on the overmedication of women and the violence experienced by psychiatrized people.
“Gender acts as a multiplier category of discrimination”alerted Pilar Alamo VazquezATELSAM Equality Program coordinator. “Women with a mental health problem are blamed for the violence they suffer, their opinions are invalid, their story is not given credibility, they are not listened to…”explained Álamo, who also denounced the inaction and the “social blindness” towards this violence, and called for the specialization of care resources. Natalia Gonzalez Britofrom the General Directorate of Assistance Programs of the Canary Islands Health Service, defended the idea of integrating the gender perspective in suicide prevention.
The second day, Dolors López Alarcónsurvivor of the death by suicide of her only daughter, author of ‘I name you’ and an expert in suicide prevention, warned: “The taboo has made suicide continue to prosper”. “We do not exist”claimed Lopez, “People don’t know what to say to us, they think they’re going to hurt us, but loneliness and stigma hurt us”. This survivor insisted that “Suicide is not an individual or family problem”but a problem that has to do with social discomforts that are not resolved.
“The taboo has made suicide continue to prosper”
Beatriz Gimeno, patricia king y Princess Incaactivists in the first person, exposed the consequences of psychiatrization, and urged to collectivize ‘the madness’ of women and take it to the public space. Itxaso Gardoki Soutoa ‘non-psychiatrized’ psychologist from the La Porvenir team, stated that in order to collectivize suffering, one must “decrease and give up privileges. You have to listen more and stop interpreting”.
In the space ‘Crazy about culture’, Paula Plazaillustrator and PhD in Fine Arts, introduced her exhibition ‘Extraordinary Women’ and Maria Castrejona writer with her own experience of BPD (borderline personality disorder) and gender expert, recited her poetry ‘When every day is Wednesday’.
To close the conference, the company La Rueda Teatro Social represented the play “Shake”created by the SPAIN MENTAL HEALTH Confederationwith the collaboration of the Ministry of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda. This piece makes visible the social problem of suicide and demands, through art, prevention, understanding and more resources for its attention.