Similar Posts
Link – The Trauma of Children of Addicts and Alcoholics
Growing up with an addict in the house, whether in ab abusive situation or not, leads to learning a lot of things as a child that are not good for us as adults. Living with an addict (including alcoholics1) can feel like life in a war zone. The addict’s personality changes caused by addiction create…
Link – 6 Reasons Why Abusers Like Larry Nassar Avoid Detection
I think this is something we all need to take to heart, and spend more time thinking about: “When someone commits sexual abuse over a long period of time, our first instinct may be to question how they were able to keep their crimes hidden. For many of us, it can be difficult to comprehend…
Sharing – Food Insecurity Linked to Rapid, Reversible Mental Health Deterioration
Doing what we can to lift people out of poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, etc., is mental healthcare.Â
Sharing – Our View: It’s time to recognize, research, and remove environmental causes of mental illness
We have only recently realized that childhood trauma can change the way our brains develop, or that concussions can change our brains permanently. We are still learning the details of how that happens and in the very early stages of figuring out how to treat that.
Could living in a polluted area do something similar? Of course. Why wouldn’t we believe that? It’s another example of something we are just beginning to understand about our brains and mental health.
Sharing – The Emerging Science of Suicide Prevention
I’m not a researcher but these two facts make me wonder if there’s not something we can do.
If we have a list of “nudges” that can help people feel like they belong or help educate people about things like safety plans, etc. and we don’t know who is at risk and which nudge might help them, maybe we should just continue to generally be kind to the people around us. That means trying to understand what makes them feel supported, connected, etc., and doing those things consistently. It also means noticing if a “nudge” has the opposite effect, and trying something different instead.
Help people feel like they belong, educate people about prevention resources, help them stay connected to family and friends, involve them, accept them, etc.
Help your friends and loved ones by communicating the kinds of things that help you. When you feel disconnected or like you are a burden, what can they do to keep you connected? What things do they do that make it worse?
When we don’t talk about these things we only make it worse, and we only continue to lose more people. We have to learn how to have these conversations. We have to be open to listening to the people closest to us and connecting to them without stigma and judgment. The researchers will keep working to learn more about prevention, but in the meantime simply caring about each other and being honest with each other is the best tool we have. We should use it.
@SurvivorNetwork Those who’ve suffered at the hands of their parents, God bless the children. @EliseMcGhee-Thirty Years of Silence-Kindle
Andrea Sutherland liked this on Facebook.
I thank you for the link to my blog article Sibling Abuse – An Epidemic. I am sorry that I am just now getting around to saying thank you. I have definitely gotten behind in my emails and keeping up with reading those blogs that I follow. I do appreciate the work that you do here.
You’re very welcome! No worries on the delay, we all have offline lives that keep us busy, busy! Thank you for the kind words, and keep up the good work!