Jun Jun's Story
Jun Jun Liang (梁慧君) (25) is a bubbly and resilient Dutch-Chinese actress who was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder last year. She is ambitious in her work and began acting at the age of fifteen. Since then, she has played leading roles in various projects, including Van God Los, A Little Less Ordinary, and Reclaiming Dragons. Through her work, she hopes to contribute to greater diversity within the Dutch film landscape.
Generalized anxiety disorder affects many aspects of her daily life, including her work. One of the biggest obstacles is that she finds it difficult to relax, because it often feels as though her mind is working overtime and constantly running at full capacity. She wrote the following piece about her generalized anxiety disorder:
For more than seven years, I walked around with symptoms like overthinking, extreme fatigue, mood swings, and sadness. For a long time, I thought something was wrong with me as a person, because on paper everything seemed to be going well: I was studying at university, had kind friends, and a family who loved me. According to my parents, I should have been happy because they had built a good life for me after leaving everything behind in China. This only made me feel guilty: why couldn’t I just be happy with the life they had sacrificed so much for?
About a year ago, I met my psychologist, who gently and empathetically explained that what I was feeling was real and that I didn’t need to feel guilty about it. I learned about self-acceptance and that my symptoms made sense, because I had grown up in a violent household. Any child in such a situation would develop some form of psychological struggle. In my case, it was a generalized anxiety disorder. I felt truly seen and heard.
My parents initially struggled to understand my diagnosis. Their first reaction was: “But what are you afraid of? Everything is going well, isn’t it?” I was high-functioning: I helped out in their restaurant, earned my university degrees, but what I couldn’t do was give myself empathy or express my feelings in a healthy way.
Because of cultural differences, taboos surrounding mental health, and generational trauma, I still find it difficult to talk about this with my family. I am still learning to navigate my challenges, but I feel powerful and grounded in who I am.
People tend to think that if they can’t see it, it isn’t there. However, that is not true. In an ideal world, everyone would try to understand one another’s perspectives with empathy. An empathetic and loving response does more than people often realize.
© Photographs taken by Eliza-Sophie Sekrève
