Similar Posts
Sharing – Is Mental Health Stigma Decreasing? It’s Complicated
We can, and should, do everything we can to get out good information and share the truth about mental health issues. We can, and should, share our own stories of the mental health issues we’ve survived, especially those of us who have had many of these issues due to the trauma we suffered.
But that will never be enough for some people. Knowing the truth about these issues, and knowing what people need in terms of non-stigmatizing support won’t be enough to change their actual behavior. The very topic(s) will make them uncomfortable and they will act out of that discomfort instead of relying on what they know. They will put their own comfort above any consideration of how stigmatizing their actions and words are because they simply cannot handle even the slightest discomfort in their lives.
That is their weakness, not ours.
Links I’m Sharing (weekly)
Three Ways Childhood Trauma Affects Adulthood Did You Know? What We’ve Learned from the International Summit on Suicide Research! You Don’t Have to Go It Alone: Finding Support When You’re Depressed Psychiatric Bed Shortage Grows While Americans Suffer Here’s what therapy is and how it works, from intake to sessions My Experience With Crisis Services…
Link – Mental health services: How to get treatment if you can’t afford it
We know the scale of the problem. “56 percent of Americans don’t get the help they need. Here are eight ways to find mental health services at little to no cost.” Because while this article may not help everyone in every situation, we need to know what is available and be prepared to help connect…
How We Talk to Ourselves Matters
As you read the rest of the article you’ll see how self-distancing conversations look a lot more like those conversations with friends I referenced earlier. Getting away from all of the “I” and “me” and fairly judging the situation quietly and calmly as if it was happening to someone else can put it into a perspective that we sometimes lose when we are thinking of ourselves, especially those of us who struggle with self-blame. Of course, then that self-blame turns to rumination which feeds into depression, and round and round we go.Â
There is a better way, and the examples given can help if we are willing to practice them. Especially the idea of reminding ourselves that we’ve already been through tougher, and more stressful situations and come out the other side.