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Link – Why There’s Nothing Wrong With Taking Medication for Mental Illness
There really isn’t anything wrong in doing whatever works for you, regardless of how other people feel about it. This made me chuckle – I’m glad you care. I’m delighted that you know some stuff. I’m not interested in your advice unless you’re my doctor, however. So the next time you’re tempted to criticize my…
Links I’m Sharing (weekly) Aug 16, 2020
#TraffickingTruths: Realities of child sex trafficking! Mental Health Apps: Beneficial or Harmful? Recognizing and easing the physical symptoms of anxiety Self-Care to Lower Anxiety When Things Aren’t OK With a Child’s Mental Health Former Jehovah’s Witness elders call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse Bless the People Who Stuck Around After My Mental Illness…
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.
Sharing – Other People Don’t Think You’re a Mess
The key is to have some compassion for yourself, similar to the compassion you might have for someone else in a vulnerable situation. When you can do that, suddenly what the other person does isn’t as important, you’ve given yourself grace, and acceptance.
As childhood abuse survivors, of course, this is tricky. Self-compassion is not generally one of our strengths. How could it be? All our lives we’ve been told that bad things happen either to bad people, or for a reason, and we’ve had something horrible happen to us, so we must be broken in some way to have had that experience. Didn’t we all think that way at one point or another? How could we not?
This Week’s Links (weekly) | Survivors News and Reviews http://t.co/SqPgzNSAao