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.
This is what matters. Having people around you with the knowledge and willingness to support you. Far too many survivors, youth and adults, have never had that. We’ve failed them as a society that values our own discomfort with the topic over supporting people we claim to care about.
Until we stop doing that and start connecting with anyone who has experienced childhood trauma, we’ll continue to see all of the negative effects writ large.
The reality is that men who were sexually abused at a young age don’t often see themselves as sexual abuse victims, and often it’s because what happened to us doesn’t fit the descriptions we see on TV. In his example, what his older brother and his friends did to him was “just sex”, because he is gay anyway, even though he was 7 at the time it started. For many other male survivors, sexual abuse is what happens to girls, not boys, or if it does happen to boys it’s when a priest, or boy scout leader does it, not older kids, family members, women, or close family friends. That’s not sexual abuse, that’s something else.
It’s the lack of communication around these kinds of experiences, on top of all the other reasons men are less likely to come forward for decades, that makes it almost impossible to truly know the rates of male sexual abuse. We simply have no way of knowing how many survivors there are who don’t even think of their experiences as abuse.
AOL News reported last week that another male survivor of abuse at the camp where Republican Scott Brown was abused as a child, has disclosed and reported his own abuse to the authorities following the publication of the politician’s memoir, Despite not being the most popular man of the past few months due to wrangling…
Brian Cardoza on Surviving Abuse and Sex Trafficking
The Science of How Our Minds and Our Bodies Converge in the Healing of Trauma
5 Reasons Mental Illness Isn’t ‘Abnormal’ (And ‘Normal’ Doesn’t Exist)
Linked: What to say to your boss if you’re struggling at work during COVID-19
Brave Expressions. -Brave Expressions is a mental health storytelling platform that empowers people to express their experiences through any creative outlet. Our mission is to create a space where people can express their mental health stories, learn about others’ experiences, and know they’re not alone.
How Scapegoating Is the Promotion of a False Family Narrative
LSU student creates mental health hotline to combat stigmas in Black communities
20 Mental Health Resources to Follow
How growing and nurturing friendships can boost your mental and physical health
Winning at all costs – how abuse in sport has become normalised
Fight Loneliness by Expanding Your Circle of Concern
The article breaks the steps into two large buckets, and I’m going to ask you to consider these when you stop to consider whether your state, local, or federal representatives are actually doing something to improve the state of mental health care.
Are they doing something to make it easier to pay for mental health care services?
Are they doing something to make it easier to find mental health services?
If they’re not doing either of these things, or worse, cutting funding and services, they are not actually interested in improving the mental health situation in the US.
Kids who show the signs of struggling with mental health issues do a heck of a lot better if we intervene. Sadly, we don’t do it enough. Sometimes it’s because we don’t have any intervention to offer them. There are no resources available to far too many families. Other times parents and adults are afraid to look for help due to the stigma associated with mental health issues, hoping the kid will grow out of it.