This Week’s Links (weekly)
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
What to Do When You Suspect Child Abuse
tags: CA ChildAbuse
U.N. Report: Child Abuse Is Rampant Globally
tags: CA ChildAbuse
The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim
tags: CA ChildAbuse
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
It’s Time to Stop Blaming Men for Their Mental Health Woes Male suicide rates in Wales ‘a national emergency’ Those with mental illness need more programs not just more slogans ‘Like hearing their voices’: Researcher analyzes suicide notes to save lives What It Was Like Doing the ’10-Year Photo Challenge’ as a Childhood Trauma Survivor…
You’re Not Alone: What College Doesn’t Teach You About Depression tags: CA Depression Matt Haig: ‘People handle you differently when they know you’re depressive’ There’s no question this is true. It was my experience as well. tags: CA Depression Six Ways We Enable Abusers tags: CA ChildAbuse How We’re Affected by the Lies Our Abuse…
As Scarlett discusses, it’s easy to feel sympathy for the “good” people with mental health issues. That would be the folks who didn’t commit a crime, and who can act mostly in socially acceptable ways. The ones who have much messier situations often escape our empathy, especially if they happen to be homeless, or a member of an underrepresented group.
Mostly though, it’s just luck. Just as I’ve mentioned many times that I was privileged and lucky enough to be able to get help to learn how to deal with my trauma, I was also lucky enough to have only been homeless for a little while, and to have not had a violent or disruptive outburst that led to my being imprisoned or killed.
That luck doesn’t make me more worthy of empathy. It was just luck.
Frankly, this does sound like a common struggle for childhood abuse survivors. It also sounds a lot like some of the symptoms of being neurodivergent. So, I guess the question is, does a history of childhood maltreatment equal an increase in the likelihood of being neurodivergent? Or does this personality trait simply have a lot in common with other types of neurodivergent traits yet is caused by surviving early trauma?
There were also people who simply weren’t there. People we thought we could depend on, and they just didn’t show up. I have always suspected that many of them simply didn’t know what to say, so they stayed away. What they didn’t realize is that I never needed them to say the right thing, I just needed to know they were there. When they weren’t, it just added more grief.
Your words are not what’s important. Your words can’t heal someone grieving. But your presence is everything.