Similar Posts
Link – How Depression Affects Your Brain
To anyone who’s had depression, you know this too well. For those of you who’ve never dealt with depression yourself and can’t figure out why the people in your life who are dealing with it can’t just see the truth, this: “No one likes you. There’s something wrong with you. You never do anything right….
Sharing – We Didn’t Say ‘Gay’ At My High School. It Almost Cost Me My Life.
Not acknowledging the humanity of anyone is what should not be acceptable. Trying to will an entire subset of humanity out of existence because they make you uncomfortable or some religious leader has told you that they are dangerous is not acceptable.
People die from suicide when there is so much pain that they see no path forward. The solution to that is to connect with them, to show them a path forward that involves being in community with people who accept and support them. Anything less than that is a willful decision to let people die.
If that’s what your beliefs tell you to do, you need better beliefs.
Sharing – How to Respond When Mental Health Advice Feels Like Judgment
Look, I get it, you tried something and it helped you, or you’ve seen it help someone else. Clearly, you are excited about the possibility of helping others, but you’re forgetting something. You’re forgetting that the person you are sharing this advice with, isn’t you.
When you come walking into a conversation with friends, or especially into online communities with statements like the ones above, the message you are actually sending is “Gee, fixing this is easy, you’re just doing it wrong”.
Imagine using those actual words towards someone you barely know. You wouldn’t, would you? At least if you’re a decent human being, you wouldn’t. But you are totally willing to take your beliefs, your own experience, and completely railroad another person’s current reality with it, you are doing something awfully similar. In a moment of emotional vulnerability, you have come in, guns blazing, with the suggestion that all of this pain they are in, and all of this struggling they are going through, should have been easy to avoid.
Link – Family Support Reduces College Students’ Loneliness, Risk of Suicide
New research finds that family support matters, even for college kids. University of Michigan investigators discovered that when college students feel isolated and disconnected, support from family members can keep them from harming themselves during difficult times, “Parents can serve as a first-line of defense in efforts to prevent or reduce the risk of suicide…
Link – The truth about self-harm
This is a really nice guide that they’ve put together: “This booklet aims to help you understand more about self-harm and what to do if you are worried about yourself or someone else. It explains what self-harm is, what to do if you or someone you know is self-harming, and how to get help.” The…
