What If I Told You Most Abuse Survivors Are Not Who We Think They Are?
What if a study found that 65% of sexual abuse survivors are “mentally healthy” as adults? Would you believe that? Granted, it might be difficult to swallow that as fact. I’m fairly skeptical of exactly how this study was conducted … Continued
Could More Data Lead to Identifying More People Who Should Be Offered Suicide Awareness Training?
That seems to be what they found in Oregon. And according to this article it’s something that more local agencies are trying to identify as well. In Oregon, what they found when they started looking into the rise in the … Continued
Mental Illness as Scapegoat – Not Every Poor Behavior is Mental Illness
I’ve been thinking about this topic for awhile now. Some of it has been brought on by hearing many of the comments about the Joker movie, some by the way people react to violence, and even some on the way … Continued
Repeating the Same Mistakes in a Broken Mental Healthcare System
Once upon a time, there were mental health asylums across the US. But, they weren’t great, and some of them were even mistreating patients. So, we closed them. The thought was that community-based services would be better, and now that … Continued
To Create Change, You Have to Move
Over the weekend, we spent some time in New Orleans, and stopped by the sculpture garden in City Park. One particular installation grabbed my attention as a metaphor for childhood abuse and trauma. Often, when speaking to survivors, I hear … Continued
Next Week is National Suicide Prevention Week in the US
Once again, we have a week dedicated to not just raising awareness of suicide as the epidemic that it has become, but thanks to resources like the ones provided by AFSP, there are things we can do to prevent the … Continued
Reminder – Sometimes Anxiety is Normal
It’s quite possible that this reminder is for myself mostly, but I also think it’s something we need to talk about a little bit. There are times when feeling anxious, is normal. There are things in life that make us … Continued
Good News, Bad News Creating an Untenable Situation for Mental Health
First, the good news. This article is from Australia, but I feel fairly confident that we’d see similar results in other countries. More and more Australians are being diagnosed with depression and anxiety. But this doesn’t mean Australians’ mental health … Continued
Quick Thought #9 – Trauma Recovery and Connection
I saw this article today about an amputee softball team, made of a bunch of folks who were injured during their service, the kind of people we all would typically view as PTSD sufferers, and I really found this part … Continued
Not The Birthday I Would Have Planned, But That’s OK
You may have noticed that things have been a little sparse on the blog and social media front for the last week or so. That’s because I’ve been up in Ohio following the passing of my Mother. In fact, I … Continued