Turning Inner Wounds into a Safe Space for Mental Health
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — The founder of the ‘Mengenal Diri Indonesia’ foundation, Salma Kyana, recounts the bullying she experienced since her teens. This inner wound became the starting point for the creation of a mental health community for young people, which has now been running for six years and has reached thousands of people through safe and free sharing spaces.
Salma says that ‘Mengenal Diri’ started from her personal anxiety of feeling that she was never enough.
“Actually, at first I was a person who didn’t know myself very well. We definitely create something from what our anxieties are,” she said at the ‘Out Loud Republika’ event, a talk show and healing experience titled ‘Grow Through What You Go Through’, Thursday (26/2/2026).
She admits that academic pressure was only a trigger, while the root of the problem was an old wound that she only realized after a long process of reflection since 2020, when she was about to graduate from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Indonesia.
She recounts that the bullying she experienced in junior high school damaged her self-image and her perception of her body. At that time, she was often mocked about her physical appearance.
“It really damaged my self-image, my body image,” she said.
The impact did not stop in school. Until high school and college, she developed a coping mechanism by seeking validation from the outside. According to Salma, she grew up with the belief that she was not good enough.
“I’m not pretty enough, not smart enough, not worthy of love, not good enough, always feeling not good enough,” she said.
This belief pushed her to become an overachiever, pursuing competitions, certificates, and awards in order to receive applause and recognition. There was even a time when she cried just because she felt she had not achieved anything in a week.
This phenomenon, she said, was exacerbated by social media, which expanded the space for social comparison. If in the past people compared themselves to their peers, now comparisons are made with strangers who only show their best side.
She calls the social media timeline a highlight reel that makes it easy for someone to feel left behind in terms of achievements, relationships, and even life stages such as marriage or having children.
The turning point occurred when she was diagnosed with Vitiligo, an autoimmune condition that causes loss of skin pigment and is incurable. The symptoms appeared at the end of 2018 and early 2019.
The white spots on her skin forced her to stop running from herself. “External validation can provide instant satisfaction. But once there is a moment when I am alone, I start to question, who am I without this?” she said.
She realized that her dependence on achievements and romantic relationships as a source of self-worth was unhealthy. Salma admits that she once felt she had to always have a partner in order to feel worthy of love.