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Sharing – Are you okay? The power of storytelling in mental health
As I mentioned, in the workplace this is true. Very few people are going to feel safe talking about their own struggles if the leaders in the company never open up about their own at some level. But, it’s also true in our relationships as well.
How many of us wish the people in our lives, spouses, kids, siblings, friends and loved ones, would feel comfortable talking to us about their struggles, yet we never share our own? How would they know that you are a safe person to talk to if you appear to never have any struggles?
Let me give you a prime example from my own life. As many of you know, I worked from home before the pandemic started, and continued to do so all the way through 2020. It had very little impact beyond some lack of socializing, on my life, and so when I compared that to what many others were going through in 2020, I didn’t really want to complain about the things I was struggling with. Most people I did talk to, didn’t really talk about their own struggles either. Finally, however, when I wrote a post about not being OK right now, and shared it across my social media profiles, including LinkedIn, I got notes and messages from a ton of people, some who I haven’t even been in touch with in awhile, telling me about their struggles as well.
I attribute that to two things. One, I know a lot of amazing people who see someone struggling and immediately set out to make sure I knew I wasn’t alone, and two, by sharing my own difficulties, I also provided them a safe place to share their own struggles.
Isn’t that what it’s really all about?
So, what are you struggling with that you have been hiding? What good is hiding doing for you?
The Truth About Trafficking From A 20-year Veteran of the Child Exploitation Task Force
I think she’s right about that last point. I’ve written many times about the stories I hear, over and over again, where people don’t want to hear about child abuse and sexual abuse. It’s too sad and dirty. It isn’t very pleasant. People don’t want to know about how much sex trafficking goes on right around us every day and the hard work we could do to solve the problem. They’d rather believe conspiracy theories and look to their “heroes,” who are nothing but con artists, to fix it for them by going on rescue missions or attacking the “elites” who are supposedly controlling all sex trafficking around the world. That seems simpler than solving the problems that make kids vulnerable to trafficking: poverty, abuse, racism, a lack of support for kids transitioning out of foster care, or LGBTQ kids whom their own families do not accept.
Those are real problems that create vulnerable kids who go on to become real victims. Fixing them will require hard work and resources from all of us.
Shared Links (weekly) Sept. 8, 2024
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Shared Links (weekly) Oct. 9, 2022
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How to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Grooming, with Feather Berkower
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9 more ways to show your friends you love them, recommended by NPR listeners
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Reducing sexual violence could be key in reducing rates of teenage mental ill-health
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Loneliness and unhappiness may accelerate aging faster than smoking
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Sharing – World Mental Health Day 2025: Why Early Support For Children Changes Everything
If you think kids are resilient and they’ll be fine, or that by teaching kids mental health and emotional skills, you’re causing them to have mental health issues, you are depriving them of a much-needed source of development that could make the difference between spending years as an adult struggling versus having the skills to navigate the difficulty of adulthood. We recognize that early intervention in mental health is crucial. Why would we not do that?
