Deportation threat? Helpfull skill against stress and fear – Stress

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Deportations are violent acts. If you are threatened with deportation and your body reacts to this ongoing and paralyzing stress with sleep deprivation, fear, body tension and pain, these are initially basically healthy reactions to this permanent stress. The interaction of acute stress with sometimes years of violent experiences in the context of escaping, as well as with racism and other power relations, can be reflected in many ways in the bodies of BI_PoC or people threatened with deportation and has a long-term negative impact on the body and health.

Stress, fear, tension and other physical reactions as well as the underlying social causes cannot be “breathed away” – and it is in no way intended to simplify deportations because people “handle it better”! Rather, the goal of this flyer is to present some resources and exercises that you can use to do yourself some good and calm yourself down, as well as to come out of powerlessness and back into the power and lively feeling of your body. The exercises should support you to strengthen yourself against the confrontation with this violent situation.

In situations of acute fear and panic, as well as in moments when you have the feeling of being beside yourself or disconnected from reality, intense sensory stimuli can help you to come back to the “here and now”:

• Biting into a lemon or chili, Center Shock bubblegum, aromatics, hedgehog balls or snapping gum on your wrist, listening to your favorite song, running cold water over your wrists, taking a cold shower, …
• The important thing is that these are strategies that are helpful in the short term and not harmful in the long term.
• Effective is also the “54321 exercise”, instructions you can find in different languages on youtube.
• Progressive muscle relaxation (e.g. instructions on youtube) calms, relaxes the muscles and reduces physical restlessness.
• Connect. Exchange ideas with others in similar situations, do something together that is good for you!
• Move. (Regular) exercise helps the body to release so-called happiness hormones as well as to reduce stress hormones. Exercise can thus help you sleep better at night. Walking, dancing, jogging, …
• Trauma Tapping Technique is a proven self-help method for relieving emotional stress that you can use while you wait for professional help
• Contact to telephone & online services (suicidality, depression, etc.):
  • Helpline Dresden – emergency number for migrants in Dresden, LK Meißen, LK Sächs.Schweiz-Ost-erzgebirge (available 24/7, german, arabic, english): 0351 850 75 222
  • Multilingual telephone counseling hotlines, e.g. 030 440 30 8112
  • The “Trauma-Ambulanz Seelische Gesundheit” (Trauma Outpatient Clinic Mental Health) from Dresden has developed a brochure with further small exercises that can help against tension and stress. It is available in several languages: bbonlink.de/stresseng