Anxiety, anger or insomnia are normal reactions of your body when there is a risk of deportation. This is because the risk of deportation means a great deal of stress.
The cause of the risk of deportation is racist laws and authorities. We cannot solve these problems with these tips. But perhaps some of the tips can help you to calm yourself down if you are panicking. Perhaps these tips can help you feel stronger and continue to fight against deportations.
If you are very scared and panicked or if you think you are beside yourself, outside the world, then it helps if you can taste, smell or feel something intense. This can bring you back from a shock.
For example, you can:
- Taste: bite into a lemon or chilli or chew strong chewing gum
- Smell: hold strong odours such as lemon, lavender, patchouli or a pleasant scent under your nose
- Feel: stroke your skin with a massage ball, a brush or something rough. Or you can flick a rubber band on your wrist. You can run cold water over your hands or face or take a hot-cold shower.
- Listen: Listen to your favourite song or relaxing sounds from the sea, wind, rain or forest.
It is important that these are strategies that are helpful in the short term and not harmful in the long term. It is about getting out of a state of fear and panic in the moment so that you can then become active again and do something about the risk of deportation.
The fear of deportation sometimes brings back bad memories of flight, war and persecution. The fear of deportation itself can be traumatising. Professional psychological therapy is then a great help for many people. But it is particularly difficult for refugees without residency to get psychotherapy. In Saxony, there are the PSZ, psychosocial counselling centres, which can sometimes help a little faster and have interpreters.
Counselling and treatment centres for mentally distressed people with migration experience. Free of charge and confidential. All employees are under a duty of confidentiality
Here, too, you often have to wait a few weeks.
That’s why you’ll find here lots of multilingual information on mental illness, trauma and panic and what you can do yourself to feel better:
Free online book with many exercises with pictures, descriptions and audio files from the World Health Organisation (WHO):
This information is also available in other languages
Video about Tapping (no language needed):
This information is also available in other languages
Videos for refugees in 17 languages with information on trauma:
This information is also available in other languages
Text and audio exercises from “Refugee Trauma Help” on on mental illness, trauma and panic:
This information is also available in other languages
Don’t stay alone with your anxiety: meet up with other people, talk about your feelings, ask for help. Get out and move (do sport, run, go for a walk) to combat the paralysing fear. Many people also find it helpful to become active and join others in campaigning against deportation. You can do something!
If you don’t know anyone, you can find initial contacts to politically active refugees and supporters here:
This information is also available in other languages