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Shared Links (weekly) Nov. 22, 2020
Young men are increasingly reaching out for mental health support
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Link – Why I’m Tired Of Mental Health Awareness Events
I agree with a lot of what James has written in this article. Yes, we need to continue to talk about mental health. The attention the issue has grabbed has made a dent in attitudes and awareness, and there is more to do there.
But, despite all the talk and awareness, we still have a criminally low level of resources available actually to help people. All too often, people who hear these conversations and attend these events wind up looking for help, and finding none.
Sharing – The Lies We Tell Ourselves About Our Worth and How I’ve Let Them Go
Orly’s first step to overcoming this was actually talking to someone about it. I cannot emphasize this enough. The shame we carry from childhood is all-consuming to us. It’s the secret we expend massive amounts of energy trying to hide and obsessing over. The things we feel shame about are the things that impact our day-to-day lives in adulthood.
And, for the most part, the shame we feel isn’t true. It’s not based in reality. Orly isn’t “not smart” any more than I am, and I do not deserve punishment any more than you. These are simply the stories we took away from our childhood.
This is also why that first reaction is so important. When we finally work up the courage to share our secrets, our shames, it’s painful to have them mocked or disbelieved.
Sharing – 988 call centers struggling to hire people to answer the phones.
Creating a new number was the easy part. Similar to raising awareness because it’s necessary, it’s essential, but if there is no one there to provide the help we encourage people to reach out for, it’s not nearly enough. Here’s hoping these state and local organizations can find and train people to provide the necessary help during these calls. That’s only a start, of course. We still have so much work to do to make that help accessible to everyone who needs it.Â
In some ways, this struggle to staff the hotline is a microcosm of the entire mental health field right now. We need a lot of resources that just aren’t there right now. Can we figure out a way to get change that?
Sharing – Current mental health support systems often fail to meet men’s needs.
In the mental health field, I would agree with the experts quoted in the article. We treat mental health and trauma recovery based on the symptoms shown most often by women, because it is most often women who are seeking help. We define the symptoms based on what we see in those women, which are not the symptoms that every woman would have, let alone others. Someone who is abusing a substance, dealing with anger, taking risks, etc., isn’t typically what we consider “depressed,” but that might be the reality.
