Blogger Sarmad Iqbal talks with award-winning author Chaker Khazaal on Mental Health and much more
Chaker Khazaal is an award-winning author as well as a speaker and reporter of Palestinian origin. After bagging many accolades in the world of writing and after embarking upon and earning success in his advocacy for refugees and young writers, Khazaal has now undertaken a campaign to open discussion on insomnia, mental health, depression, stress, and identity crisis. The campaign was launched in April this year with 5 videos on 5 of the aforementioned themes released by Chaker on his social media accounts. Chaker became a face of this intensely moving and thought-provoking campaign that was launched by OBCIDO Inc.
After thoroughly following all the campaign videos of Chaker, I was deeply moved since I felt everything there as something I can relate to as a writer myself who still suffers from insomnia, has dealt with depression, is dealing with varying levels of stress and anxiety coming out of his daily grind. Though the videos are in Arabic a language Iam not greatly familiar with but the emotional intensity with which Chaker acts and conveys the message in each video makes me feel liberated and comfortable as I see someone talking publicly out and loud about something I didn’t feel comfortable expressing my opinion in public. This campaign has renewed my courage to deal with the monsters that dwell in our minds in the guise of mental health struggles. I can easily say Iam now filled with valor sufficient to act as my armor against mental health-related ailments.
Talking, speaking out, and acknowledging the presence and existence of these ailments is pivotal towards winning the battle against them. Therefore, thanks to Chaker, I sat for a virtual conversation with him on mental health and everything his campaign “Let’s talk” stands for. After our freewheeling and warm conversation, I felt relieved and delighted at the same time. I raised several questions to Mr. Khazaal and to my delight he retorted to all of them with answers adequate to satiate not just my but also everyone else’s curiosity to talk on a subject as significant as mental health. The recorded video of my conversation with Chaker is here to watch, you can watch it and also give any feedback or comments on it.
Though I had already read Khazaal’s work before, after our exciting and congenial discussion session, I can without any doubt call him inspiring and inspirational. I wish him immense success in all of his endeavors as he continues to work for the greater good and has a very altruistic approach to his work. Keep following him on his Twitter (@ChakerKhazaal), Instagram (@chakerkhazaal), and Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/ChakerKhazaalPage ) accounts to stay updated with his positive and influential change-making in the Arab world.