Last week, I wrote about how important friendship is to our well-being and how terrible most of us are about making and keeping friends. Given that, I thought I would also share this list of recommended books. If you have other recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments!
https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/5-new-books-science-making-keeping-friends/41586/
What do you think, has the self-help movement’s focus on finding happiness created a world where we are all expected to be happy? “Tied up in the pressure to be happy is, of course, the self-help craze. Self-help books that purport to teach people how to find happiness could encourage a harmful perspective on emotions,…
This is true for anyone working in the field of mental health, or crisis intervention, and it’s also true of advocates. I’ve seen it too many times: “While compassion fatigue can happen when helpers are unable to replenish and restore emotionally and physically (Figley, 1982), vicarious trauma is the shift you experience mentally from…
Between Amy Berg being too busy to promote it, and the R rating it was given, the film has not been a commercial success. But, that doesn’t mean those of us who care about the subject matter can’t try and help! So if you’re not aware of it, here’s my effort to get the word…
This is about sexual assault, but it’s the same kind of thing we see with child abuse survivors too: Can’t we just believe survivors, or at least conduct really good investigations, without knowing about the neurobiology of stress and trauma? In theory, maybe, but often the ways people report reacting to assaults can be baffling,…
It turns out that teens with safe places to talk about mental health and better access to resources are helped. There is still a lot of work to be done to close the gap between teens who need help and those who can get it, but this is the work that makes a difference in the lives of everyone when it comes to mental health. It’s also hard work. None of the possible reasons for the lower rate discussed in the article are overnight solutions. They take time, money, work, and dedication. Putting a warning label on the internet is easy, but it’s not clear that it has any effect.
What I really enjoyed about the list of things Anya uses to support her own well-being is that some of them are simple activities, yoga, reading, knitting, etc.
Many of us think of our support network when it comes to addiction, mental health, healing trauma, etc., in terms of the people around us. That’s an important part of it, yes, but there are also the things we do to support ourselves. Those are important too.
My list of support activities doesn’t look at all like Anya’s, but it’s there. Getting out and taking photos, learning new technologies, writing, listening to podcasts, etc. Those things keep me connected and involved with the things that interest me, and they are an important part of taking care of my mental health.
