Question 25: How happy do you feel on a scale between 1 and 10?

Before I came up with the idea for the Swenglish-project I was down at 3,5 on the happiness scale. I felt confused and didn't know what to do with my life. I still don't know really and I'm still a bit confused, but I've accepted my situation. Nowadays I'm an 8 most of the time. I needed a big change in life, so I changed country, city, social circles, occupation... A bit drastic perhaps, but it was necessary.

How happy do you feel on a scale between 1 and 10? What a stupid question. Only one out of the 30 Swenglish participants answered "I hate that kind of questions" and refused to answer. That person, who lived in England, was very wise, I think. Of course you can't measure happiness or wellness. But I asked anyway.

This how the remaning people in England answered:

5  6  6  7,5  8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8  8,5 and "8 or 9 at happy times, other times 5 or 6"

The people in Sweden answered:

6  6  6  7  7  7  7  7,5  8  8  8  8  9  10  10  

The participants were asked to consider both mental and physical health, but often it goes together. More people than I'd thought had at some point seen a counsellor/therapist/psychologist and/or been on anti-depressants. According to the stats, 1 out of 4 people in both England and Sweden suffer from some kind of anxiety or depression. Even among the people who answered 8 there were people who had been diagnosed with depression. I also asked people what it would take to reach a 10. Some missed being in a relationship, others were unhappy with their career, others felt generally stressed or were anxious about the future.

PÅ SVENSKA

Sources:

http://www.livlinan.org/psykisk-oh%C3%A4lsa/psykisk-oh%C3%A4lsa-och-diagnoser.html

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/UK-worldwide

This study is by no means scientific, the answers are based on interviewing 15 people in England and 15 people in Sweden, aged 22-59. Look out for the next question: What do you do in your spare time?

Question 24: What's your attitude towards drugs?

I've got no photos of drugs. I'll keep this short as it could be a sensitive subject matter for the people I interviewed.

Almost all the people I stayed with in England had tried drugs. Some took drugs now and again, mostly at parties or smoking a spliff at home. Among the people in Sweden there were many who had never tried drugs and no one used drugs at the moment.

I was very naive when I moved to Brighton as a 19-year old. I thought that people just smoked long roll-ups when they really smoked a joint. Through my own observations it's clear that there are more drugs around in England than in Sweden. But now I'm talking about what it was like ten years ago and I'm aware that not all Swedes are as naive as I was.

Several of the people in the Swenglish project pointed out that alcohol was the worst drug as it's so sociably accepted.

PÅ SVENSKA

This study is by no means scientific, the answers are based on interviewing 15 people in England and 15 people in Sweden, aged 22-59. Look out for the next question: How happy are you on a scale between 1 and 10?