“Everyone deserves to have fun”
“I am still a wonderful person, even behind my scars and all that I’ve been through.”
Isabell represented Austria at the Wroclaw Cup in Poland. The Wroclaw Cup is an annual street football tournament organised by our Polish partner Stowarzyszenie Reprezentacja Polski Bezdomnych (Polish Homeless National Streetsoccer Team Association).
22-year-old Isabell Mitwally from Graz has played football with boys’ teams, girls’ teams, men’s and women’s teams, but it’s clear she’s found more than just football players with the Austrian Homeless women’s team, she’s found a family.
First kicking a ball at eight years old, football has always been a part of Isabell’s life, but she only realised just how important it was to her when her mental health declined.
“I get really stressed out, but when I play football, I can just forget everything and turn off my thoughts. I feel very much better after training or a match. That’s really something I value a lot.
“I have a lot of trauma from my childhood, in 2018 I had a very hard time – I had to be in hospital, and I didn’t have any will left to live.”
At the time, life for Isabell seemed hopeless: “I only saw black. I didn’t see a future for myself.”
Eighteen months since being spotted playing in the park and asked to join the team, her outlook has changed. Isabell puts it down to therapy and doing what she loves. And importantly, she’s now accepted she can and should have fun!
“I do things that make me happy – I spend time with my friends, get out into nature, also spend some time alone with myself and do things that I like to do. Just enjoy life in every aspect. And do things that I always wanted to do but wasn’t able to do because of my mental health, because I didn’t feel like I deserved to have fun.”
She smiles and says, “everyone deserves to have fun.”
“I always try to see something positive in every situation”
“Now I enjoy life and I want to see the good in everything. I want to learn something from every situation. It has made me very strong. I see things differently in life now. I always try to see something positive in every situation, even if we lose, I will take something from it.”
However, focusing on the positives, she explains, doesn’t mean ignoring the tough times.
“I often notice in others that they feel down, and they feel angry, and that’s ok. I try to accept those emotions and then learn something from them. That helps me to grow as a person.”
Accepting herself has been key to Isabell’s mental health improving, but she thinks more need to be done to tackle the stigma that surrounds mental health.
“Everyone has to learn a lot about themselves, how they think, what they want, what their values are and when people cross the line, they should say something about it. When you know that about yourself you can always get a lot further.”
While it was hard to speak about it at first, now Isabell is comfortable and wants more people to understand what it’s like to live with mental health struggles.
“Because of therapy I’ve worked through a lot so now I can talk about it. I enjoy talking about it because I can tell people about things that they don’t know. Maybe I can make them think differently.”
“I’m Still a normal person”
Her main aim is to challenge the idea that people with mental health struggles are “abnormal”.
“I am still a normal person even if I sometimes think bad of myself, If I am not as happy as other people. I am still a wonderful person, even behind my scars and all that I’ve been through. I still deserve a chance at life and don’t need to be put down by society because of my story.”
Isabell adds that politicians and teachers need “to help de-stigmatise mental health by talking about how it actually is – rather than their assumptions about people who are mentally ill. I want the whole system to be cleared up and to show that mental injuries are just as severe as a physical injury. People still suffer, they just have other reasons for it.”
Thinking back to her darkest time, Isabell could never imagine her life now.
“I wouldn’t have thought that I would ever get close to working, to moving out from home - that has always been a really difficult place for me. I thought everyone hates me, no one wants to spend time with me, and no one loves me. It’s a lot better now. I still have days where I don’t feel great, and I feel down, but it’s way easier to get back up because I’ve gained a lot of strength.”
Homeless World Cup Austria are our partner in Austria, find out how they’re using football to end homelessness and tackle social isolation.
Words: Rebecca Corbett