Three Jordanian Paralympic Athletes accused of child abuse in Antrim, Northern Ireland have been withdrawn from the games by their Paralympic association and bailed to return to the country in October for trial. The BBC has the summary here.
– CBG
PC Stephen Mitchell was a corrupt English police officer who raped or assaulted up to 16 girls and women between 17 and 48. He was jailed for life for these attacks at the start of the year, plus the associated coercion and in one case, passing drugs on to one of the victims as the…
May, of course, is Mental Health Month, and apparently, to celebrate, more than one website published a list of “best” mental health books on the 1st day of the month. So, in the interest of sharing good resources, and books, I thought I would share the two lists I saw:
21 Best Mental Health Books of All Time
21 Important Books That Address Mental Health Topics
I’ve read a couple of the books on the lists, but I’m not familiar with others at all, so if you have any opinions on any of the lists, the book on the lists, or book that you think should be on the lists, leave a comment and let us know!
Now, here comes a study, linked below, that has done the real scientific research and found:
“ACE scores can forecast mean group differences in later health problems; however, ACE scores have poor accuracy in identifying individuals at high risk for future health problems.”
Yes, there are statistics that show that there’s an impact at the societal level from childhood trauma. We should be addressing those issues as a society, things like child poverty, parents in the prison system, abuse, neglect, etc. because we know that as we lessen those impacts on kids, and make resources available for the kids who’s trauma we can’t prevent, we can impact the overall increases in depression, addiction, crime rates, etc. that are a direct result of childhood trauma. But, at an individual level, these things aren’t fate. How one person navigates trauma and is impacted by it, is not going to come down to just the number of traumas they dealt with as a child. When we identify one person with 4 or more ACEs according to the survey, all that really tells us is that it’s basically 50-50 whether or not they are depressed, or there’s a close to 30% chance they’ve used illicit drugs, but a 70% chance they haven’t. One person is not going to neatly fit every category and shouldn’t be treated as if they do.
Every survivor has the freedom to choose how, when, and in what detail, they want to share their story. You can ask for more, but you also have to respect the survivor’s choice to not answer. They don’t owe you that. The only time it’s really even appropriate to press for details if you’re a criminal prosecutor trying to help the survivor bring the abuser to justice.
Outside of that very specific situation? No, we don’t owe you anything. You can support a survivor without knowing all the details. In fact, respecting their boundaries around what they decide to share, is one great way to support them in their healing. They’ve already had too many people not respect their boundaries.
My Friend Abuses His Wife! How Can I Help? (pt 2) tags: CA Why Children Don’t Tell About Sexual Abuse (Part 5: They’re Ashamed) tags: CA 12 Depression Busters for Men tags: CA Is it Sadness or Depression? 10 Questions to Ask Yourself tags: CA Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are…
As I read this, I couldn’t help but compare it to the hundreds of stories where the opposite was true. People are so afraid of saying the wrong thing or so uncomfortable with the idea of mental health issues that they run the other way. They disconnect from someone who so desperately needs connection. Someone they love is feeling all that embarrassment and pain and no longer has anyone to connect to and remind them of their value, their humanness.
As the title of Elizabeth’s post says, we need each other.
