News item | 23-05-2023 | 1:00 pm
Today – in the week of mental health – VWS, sor and Tabitha launch the song ‘Het is okay’. With this they kick off the new youth campaign ‘Hey, it’s okay’. With the song they want to give young people the confidence to talk when they feel gloomy or stressed, for example. Today sor and Tabitha sing the song for the first time during a surprise performance at the ROC TOP in Amsterdam.
When everyone around you shows only a perfect picture, it can feel like you’re the only one who sometimes feels stressed or down. To show young people that everyone doesn’t feel okay sometimes and to encourage them to talk about how they really feel, sor and Tabitha made the song ‘It’s okay’. They too sometimes do not feel okay and can have a say in the pressure to perform.
Sor: “I always feel the pressure to surpass myself and keep making new music. But at some point you have already made so much that this becomes an increasing challenge. And that gives me quite a performance pressure. I want to encourage young people to talk about their feelings. Otherwise you will bottle everything up, and it will only get worse.” Tabitha: “I often experience pressure before a show because I always expect the best from myself. I notice that I am very irritable and sometimes also insecure. By talking to my environment about it, I become calm again. They then remind me that I can be kinder to myself and be proud of how far I’ve come. I want to give young people the confidence that being perfect does not exist and that it is okay to feel the way you feel”.
Prevention
1 in 3 young people has mental complaints. As it turns out Health Survey COVID-19 (2022) of the RIVM. This concerns, for example, complaints such as anxiety, depressed feelings, stress, loneliness and sleeping problems. To reduce the chance that early mental complaints will get worse, it is important that young people are open about how they feel. This is not yet self-evident for a large group of young people. The perfect life seems the norm.
Mariam (22 years old) felt a lot of pressure to perform at school. She did not think it necessary to talk about this for a long time. She saw it as weakness and thought others couldn’t solve her problems anyway. She sees that differently now. “When I confided in a teacher and my best friend, I felt I wasn’t alone anymore. That was a huge relief.”
Performance pressure
“We have to do too much of ourselves,” says State Secretary Maarten van Ooijen of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS). “More than half of the students experience pressure to perform. This pressure to perform, among other things, causes mental problems for many young people. It’s important to talk to someone you trust if you’re not feeling okay. Such as a friend, your parents or teacher. What a relief.” Minister Conny Helder (VWS): “75 percent of psychological complaints arise before the age of 25. If young people talk to someone from their environment sooner or, for example, receive low-threshold digital help with starting mental complaints, we can prevent their problems from getting worse”. Van Ooijen: “I think it’s fantastic that sor and Tabitha are committed to this campaign to give young people the confidence to talk about their mental health.”
About the new youth campaign
The ‘Hey, it’s okay’ campaign is an initiative of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and was developed in collaboration with MIND, MIND Us, Young Impact and Snapchat. The campaign encourages young people with early mental complaints to talk about how they feel. The campaign shows that everyone sometimes does not feel okay due to stress, gloom, uncertainty or fear of failure. And gives tips on how to deal with this, for example by sharing the experiences of young people. For the campaign, the label Noah’s Ark brought together artists sor, Tabitha and producer Big2 to translate this message into music. The song ‘It’s okay’ is now available to stream on Spotify and other platforms. The music video will be released on May 30. The campaign can be seen on social media (Instagram account @heyhetisoke) and in schools. More information can be found at heyhetisoke.nl.