Similar Posts
Link – #ItsOKToTalk: Australian men join viral selfie mental health campaign
“Thousands of Australian men have joined a viral selfie campaign to promote open conversations about suicide and mental health. The #ItsOkayToTalk campaign has gathered momentum globally after UK rugby player Luke Ambler posted a selfie that encouraged his friends and teammates to start opening up. Mr Ambler started the campaign after the sudden death of…
Sharing – Supporting disclosure for adult male survivors of child sexual abuse
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.
Sharing – “Why is it still so hard for young people of color to get therapy?”
As I see it, there are two problems here that, while not unique to this group, may be exacerbated for them: Many young people of color who are facing mental health or substance use challenges don’t seek therapy because of the stigma and shame associated with mental illness in their communities. When they do, they…
Link – Book Review: Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology
The sentiment what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger seems to be commonplace among those who espouse the virtues of resilience, grit, and mental toughness. But what happens when adversity strikes during childhood? What are the adult responses to an early life filled with not just adversity and trauma, but toxic stress? And more importantly,…
Link – Self-Stigma and Mental Health
This is something I think many of us go through in our own ways – I want to dispel the existing stigma applied to mental health. Through communication and using my voice I can raise awareness. While I can research how people’s attitudes and beliefs perpetuate the stigma, and write about them — speaking publicly…
