Ama-Gi, Iraq

Hello!

I'm Ama-Gi from Iraq, and here I share my experience with Jimmy Bangash from Free Hearts Free Minds.

Before starting my sessions with Jimmy I wasn't only suicidal, I was, in some sense, manipulative. I would bombard people who care about me with messages about torturing and/or killing myself. Something I tried many times before. I would refuse facing facts about myself, my attitude and my behavior.

Jimmy worked with me to not consider suicide as an option.

I want to put it simply here; from suicidal thoughts, self-isolation, hatred for everyone and myself, to re-realizing life, re-accepting it as it is, and going back again to the world and starting to make friendships, starting to focus on myself again.

I'm at a point where I can't really believe all we have achieved...

I'm not totally back yet but I'm more back than I'd hoped for.

I hope to continue my therapy with Jimmy one day.

Lubna, Nigeria

Before starting, I was feeling all alone confused and broken. I felt like life was not worth living. Everywhere seemed to be spinning. I wanted to run and hide but there was nowhere to hide. I was constantly on sleeping pills just so I can pass through the day and not have to go through these feelings that turned me almost crazy.

But after my coaching, I am now able to handle situations better, I have a better understanding of why I feel a certain way and I am able to consider the other person’s feelings and not be too selfish making everything about me. I have come to accept that there are times I will go through difficulties, a phase that will eventually go away. I feel more in control of my emotions and am also able to not let things I can’t control take over me. I worry less about other people’s opinions of me and am even more confident in presenting my authentic self.

Communication with my partner has definitely changed. I am more welcoming in our conversation and not too quick to judge, for that reason my partner is able to open up a bit more. And I have never been happier raising my kids.

In general I learned to love and accept myself and not beat myself up when things go bad, instead be kind to me, everyone involved and even kinder towards the situation. I have learnt to handle anger nicely that’s for sure. A constant reminder I give myself is this fact that not everyone will accept me and my ways, and that too is ok. There is definitely a sense of peace within me.

I am happy I went through this experience exactly the way I went through it and wouldn’t change a thing.

Thank you Free hearts Free Minds for coming to my rescue and for an amazing experience.

Lubna. Nigeria

Sofia, Malaysia

Being a female ExMuslim in Malaysia For the most part is not disruptive to daily life. It is not immediately visible that one is an ex muslim so the presumption will always be I'm a liberal Muslim. The only issue is being an ex Muslim, but Muslim passing due to being Malay, is hard to endure. Being surrounded by your Malay community who are all so clear to you as being indoctrinated and to varying degrees, because of the religion, but you have to play nice, is hard to endure. To read the news and see Islamic authorities doing bullshit things policing citizens and being allocated taxpayers' funds to fund these activities is enraging. To hear the overwhelming male population being entitled in their misogyny is aggravating.

Before the coaching sessions I was struggling because I had felt secure being in the company of the non-muslim community believing they embraced me as one of their own. I'm slow to trust and had believed they were as well and that we had built a rapport over a period of 2 years. I had some kind of psychological breakdown when I realized they never had considered me one of them because of race. I may identify as non-muslim but I'm not of the non-muslim race of Malaysia. The politicised racial division in Malaysia has developed non-muslim communities i.e. Indian and Chinese to be insular due to their protectionist approach to preserve their own cultural and non-muslim space. I was experiencing anxiety and panic attacks and felt like I was drowning. I was desperate for help and sought social company from friends, family and realised they were not equipped for the help I need. I then sought psychiatric treatment from a local hospital and also reached out to Jimmy hoping it would help.

I also started prescribed medication by the psychiatrist which helped with anxiety and panic attacks. This gave me some mental clarity and not be too affected by the drowning feeling of not belonging. I didn't have any clarity on what exactly mentally healthy means, I've always thought I was mentally healthy.

During the sessions I had insights into what psychology means and started to see how my brain is wired. Not absolute clarity but it was more of finding what had been subconscious issues I didn't deal with maybe emotionally or psychologically, dig them up and have them addressed. It had been eye-opening and gave me a better idea of what mental health means and where I stand on the mental health spectrum; not as healthy as I've always thought. My challenge has always been to be less emotionally affected by others' emotions and to be more oriented to my own emotions for myself. In a sense, bringing my consciousness more towards myself and my identity rather than myself in relation to others, as how I realize now I've been brought up. I've made great progress and feel more comfortable in my skin and a better understanding of who I am but I also realize that ongoing sessions is likely a solution I need to consider.

I’ve learnt to be less negative about how I feel towards my own emotions, in essence, to accord myself more value to myself to be closer to the value I have accorded to others' emotional wellbeing.

I did not have high expectations because I know I have some deep-rooted issues from childhood trauma that had caused me great distress for decades and didn't expect them to be resolved by a few sessions. I was amazed to discover that it did help in the few sessions which made me realize, I should have gotten therapy sooner instead of anguishing about it for years.

The sessions I've had were amazing and made a difference: How it was fluid and dynamic and dealt with whatever I was dealing with at the moment in time. How Jimmy manages to root to something based on what I say and we go down that rabbit hole to pull out the subconscious that I have no awareness to be aware about. The exercises we did that actually made a difference.

@sofialamoureuse from Malaysia.