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Link – The playing field wasn’t level to begin with: On childhood trauma and the fruitless comparison game.
This is so important as we continue to understand how social media affects us as we look at the “perfect” things people choose to share with the world: If this is you, if you had to spend a majority of your life surviving an abusive childhood, and then later coping with the lingering impacts of…
Shared Links (weekly)
Peer Support: A Model for People Helping People Heal Website Helps College Students Deal with Mental Health Issues Childhood emotional neglect, the long-lasting impact of what wasn’t there. How Talking About Suicide Can Give People Something to Live For Child sexual abuse: Parents, don’t think it can’t happen to your child 5 Ways to Improve…
Sharing – When You’re Depressed Being in Someone Else’s Presence is Powerful
If you know someone dealing with depression, this is important to know. When my depression hits hardest and the suicidal thoughts swarm my mind and I don’t feel safe in my own skin, there is nothing more powerful or meaningful to me than someone just sitting with me. Knowing that someone else is there makes…
Sharing – Mental Health Awareness Week – Doing one of the most difficult jobs
This is important work done by the Internet Watch Foundation, and I’m glad they see how important the mental health impact can be. “Our analysts see more distressing images in a day than most see in their lifetime. Day in, day out, we see many children whose peace of mind is ruined by an internet…
Sharing – The Emerging Science of Suicide Prevention
I’m not a researcher but these two facts make me wonder if there’s not something we can do.
If we have a list of “nudges” that can help people feel like they belong or help educate people about things like safety plans, etc. and we don’t know who is at risk and which nudge might help them, maybe we should just continue to generally be kind to the people around us. That means trying to understand what makes them feel supported, connected, etc., and doing those things consistently. It also means noticing if a “nudge” has the opposite effect, and trying something different instead.
Help people feel like they belong, educate people about prevention resources, help them stay connected to family and friends, involve them, accept them, etc.
Help your friends and loved ones by communicating the kinds of things that help you. When you feel disconnected or like you are a burden, what can they do to keep you connected? What things do they do that make it worse?
When we don’t talk about these things we only make it worse, and we only continue to lose more people. We have to learn how to have these conversations. We have to be open to listening to the people closest to us and connecting to them without stigma and judgment. The researchers will keep working to learn more about prevention, but in the meantime simply caring about each other and being honest with each other is the best tool we have. We should use it.
