In a chair in an office sits a woman in her late 20s with blond, tousled hair and red eyes. She laughs. The office belongs to her mother, and the crying daughter comes there relatively often since she is a musician and works alone a lot. But one day the mother looks at her with loving eyes and says: “Thea. I’m glad you’re coming here. But I think maybe you need to talk to someone.” Is it really good? About ten years later, Thea Glenton Raknes has turned 37, is still a musician and goes by the stage name Thea & The Wild. – I’m not the same as I was all the time. As a rule, I am happy! But in her late 20s she had periods where she was inexplicably sad, and it comes back at regular intervals. Thea talks about the mood swings. – People probably see me as quite cheerful, but I have always had strong feelings. It started in youth. Thea agreed with her mother that day about ten years ago, she needed to talk to someone. But who and how? She wasn’t sick. Just very sad without knowing why. – So I thought … why should I get help? I just had to toughen up. Can’t sit here and laugh. My God, I’m actually fine! That’s the whole problem: she works. Keeps head above water. At the same time, she tries to track her cycle, find good advice in books and online. She has been to the GP several times and tried specialists. – But I just stumble and fall between chairs. The (unfortunately) ordinary Thea – Thea is not alone. This is a big problem in Norway and the rest of the world: We know too little about the female body. That’s what Malin Stensønes says, who is secretary general of the Norwegian Women’s Sanitary Association. – Far too many suffer from “unexplained” symptoms that can affect quality of life, everyday life, cohabitation, work and health. Some symptoms are serious, others less serious, but they still affect the whole life. – In the meantime, you hear that you have to toughen up, that you are hysterical, says Stensønes. Malin Stensønes is general secretary of the Norwegian Women’s Sanitary Association. The paradox Let’s take an example: PMDD is a disease that affects up to 5 percent of women of childbearing age. There are roughly the same number of people who get type 2 diabetes in Norway. But the number of women with PMDD may be much higher (many do not know they have it, after all). Since the “unknown” women’s illnesses often go beyond mood and mental health, it ends in an eternal paradox, Thea believes: – It is when you are at your lowest that you are least able to ask for help. And when you feel good, you don’t need help, says Thea. – That paradox can mean that you remain in that situation for the rest of your life. The big strategy Norway is one of the countries in the world with the highest sickness absence rates, and women have 68 per cent higher sickness absence rates than men. – An equality problem, said the research leader for the group which was set up this summer to find out why sickness absence is so lopsided. (They will continue until 2030). And things keep happening. The Minister of Health recently presented Norway’s first women’s health strategy. He called it a historic day. – For far too long, the health services have thought that men and women are largely the same. We know that too much of the research has been based on the male body. Health Minister Jan Christian Vestre (Ap) presented the Women’s Health Strategy on Thursday 3 October 2024 at Ullevål Hospital. Now the Government has established it once and for all: The female body is biologically different from the male body. At the risk of sarcastic excess here, it is worth mentioning that this is the first time a Government has drawn up a women’s health strategy. But it has already received a lot of criticism. Many think too vague and cautious. Too much “recommends”, too little “must”, and too poor finances at the healthcare institutions. Not the symptoms, there is something wrong with the Secretary General of Sanitetskvinnenne says it is good that there is now a national strategy that recognizes the health difference between the sexes. – We have different symptoms than men and more “diffuse” symptoms, says Stensønes. – But I don’t think the symptoms are necessarily diffuse. I think we know too little. Thea also hopes that the new women’s health strategy has something to offer. – Don’t just give us antidepressants and think that solves the problem. We are more complex beings than that. Thea works on the case Since then, the crying woman in her late 20s has left her mother’s office, continued with concerts across the country, and released several albums. Her music is often about that: the mood swings. Like the song Misery Mountain, which is about the fact that she is not herself when she is at the “peak of misery”, but that she makes contact when she is down again. Or the one that she thinks women are listened to too little: And yes, Thea has tried to figure herself out. In addition to the GP and the female body specialist, Thea tried a psychologist (too long a waiting list) and a psychiatrist (too complicated an application process), but ended up with a gestalt therapist. It helped quite a bit. But in the same period she also became pregnant with her first child. – And then it goes up and down again. So I never quite figure out what it is. But she is still working on the case. Today she is under investigation for ADHD and PMDD. Just want to be in balance – Do you know what triggers the mood swings? Cycle, lack of sleep, food, fresh air, daylight, exercise…? – No, that is what is so strange. It’s like a switch that turns on and off. Of course, she knows that it is important to eat well, go for walks in the forest and get enough sleep. But all the symptoms kind of flow into each other. Nevertheless, there has been more focus on these “unknown” women’s diseases in recent years. Because in the same breath as PMDD, we can add endometriosis, adenomyosis, metabolism, hormones, autism, bipolar disorder, menopause … Thea hopes it leads to change. – I just want to work. Be in balance. Art as a lucky pill At the same time, Thea is, in a sense, grateful for the strong feelings. They are the ones who make her make music. – If you have a hobby, you are extremely lucky. It keeps you busy with something other than your own head. Art in particular is important, she thinks. – Creating something makes sense. Thea & The Wild have been inspired by the history of the old Dikemark psychiatric hospital where artistic expression was part of the treatment.
ttn-69
Thea Glenton Raknes has major mood swings. She doesn’t know why. – Culture
