Shared Links (weekly) – Dec. 6, 2020
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A Digital Resource Toolkit for Prioritizing Your Mental Health
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Trauma unmakes the world of the self. Can stories repair it?
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
A Digital Resource Toolkit for Prioritizing Your Mental Health
Trauma unmakes the world of the self. Can stories repair it?
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
I will admit, in healthcare, these two types of narrative incoherence could cause a problem. How would a medical professional move forward with a diagnosis when our response to the first question is to dump an overwhelming amount of possibly relevant, possibly not, information, or to dismiss any symptoms? It really would be difficult to know. We know that the folks who get to the quickest, and best, healthcare are the ones who come in with details like what is wrong, how long it’s been going on, what happened previously to an illness or injury, etc. Trauma survivors typically struggle with exactly that.
This is only one way where not being able to tell a story in a coherent, effective, way hurts survivors. It blocks us from legal proceedings, as I said before, and it blocks us from being understood by those closest to us quite often. So, if you really want to connect with others, and maybe get better healthcare, learn to tell stories. That’s how the world communicates. But, if you’re confronted with someone who is struggling to tell a coherent story, consider what kind of trauma they may be dealing with, and have a little patience.
If you have never stood on the shore and looked at the ocean, you don’t know what that feels like. If you have never flown on an airplane, you don’t know the sensation of take-off or ascension. Mental illness = same thing. Yes, it’s true. You cannot expect everyone around you to really understand what…
And this is really the tip of the iceberg. Those stereotypes are harmful, and in the case of leaving trauma untreated, dangerous. But we’ve all heard them, and more, haven’t we? “A total of 81% said they had felt stereotyped as an abuse survivor, while 69% said they did not speak out about abuse due…
This resource seems like something worth sharing. We spend so much time talking about online safety, banning phones until a certain age, or banning social media, and not enough time making sure we prepare kids for the dangers of being online at all. It’s like banning a child from leaving the house without a parent and then sending them to school with no skills for navigating other people on their own. At some point, kids learning about appropriate and inappropriate behavior and having a safe place to talk about it has to be the priority.
This seems like the should be obvious, but it’s not: When someone is upset about something, validating and understanding their feelings isn’t going to necessarily make them suddenly forget why they’re angry. That person will still be upset, but validation helps them maintain some self-worth and optimism. So often, when we talk about our mental…
So this is some positive news for the UK, even though there are still over 5,000 total per year, a shocking number for a country of that size. The overall news though, is a bit more of a mixed bag: “Collectively there’s been huge effort towards men and we’re starting to see the effects of…