Tracie has an interesting story about how she wouldn’t ask for help as a new mom, even when it was clear that she needed it.
More importantly, she also lists some great resources where you can reach out and get help, whether you are depressed, a victim of sexual assault, or suspect a child is being abused.
As Tracie, and many of us, learned, we all need help every now and then.
There are a ton of links from there. What I found unique about the page is that they are tackling the issue from two different perspectives. One, how journalists should write about mental health and people dealing with mental illnesses or PTSD from traumatic events, and secondly, how to take care of their mental health as they cover war, disaster, etc.
Both are important topics, and I would love for anyone, from professional journalists covering a war to a blogger writing about mental health or sharing a story of trauma, to consider them. Please consider how we cover trauma and mental health, and how we make sure to take care of ourselves in the process.
For me, I’ve always viewed holding space in terms of that word, safe. When I hold space for someone I’m not solving their problem, or questioning them. I’m simply letting them be. Whatever that might look like at that moment, and I’m making sure that they are safe. It means making sure that being in my presence, either in person or virtually, is a place where they are free to cry, vent, question, or whatever form of expression is needed to help at that moment. It means being the person who is simply there, listening, offering support, but above all else, keeping them safe, physically, emotionally, mentally, etc.
I also recognize how difficult that really is to do. Many of us weren’t raised to “hold space”, but to fix things. We see someone crying and our instinct is to fix, to do something to get them to stop crying, instead of simply giving them space to cry. Or we want to run out and correct instead of simply allowing people the space to tell their story safe from the worry of the person hearing it will overreact. This is so hard for us, we want to correct injustice, to fight for the people we care about, but sometimes by doing so, we eliminate their safe space to simply tell their story and stop listening to what they want from us. That is the opposite of holding space.
How do you hold space for others, and for yourself?
I have listened to podcasts for years now, mostly about technology and sports. Recently, I saw an article about mental health podcasts, which probably should not have come as a surprise to me. There are plenty of mental health bloggers, so why not podcasters too? 😉 Speaking the Unspeakable: Podcasts offer listeners (and hosts) new…
Living Well is an Australian website packed with general advice and information for male survivors of both child sexual abuse and adult attacks as well, concentrating on the Queensland region with plans to expand into Brisbane over the summer. Considering that it’s still under construction, it’s quite well-built already with at least one downloadable guide…
The site is available here:
https://www.covidmentalhealthsupport.org/
It appears to be limited to the US, despite the fact that it lets you type in another country. I just showed no countries showing up in the list other than the US regardless of what I typed, but maybe at some point it will add more resources, or if you know of a similar resource in your country, feel free to drop a link in the comments.
