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Reviews Elsewhere – A Twofer on Mental Health Treatment Then and Now
I’m always on the lookout for reviews of books and resources that cover abuse and/or mental health issues, so I couldn’t resist an article from the New York Post recently – The shocking truth about America’s mental health crisis From that article we get reviews of two different books: In “Damnation Island,” a new history of…
Sharing – A Shortage Of Mental Health Treatment Beds Can Trap Kids In Crisis Inside ERs
We have to have serious discussions about mental health resources, for adults and kids. This isn’t even about stigma or awareness, this is a system with fundamental flaws, that creates this lack of available, and affordable, resources. This is a society that is unable, and unwilling, to provide basic care for too many of its own members. Is that the society we want to live in? I hope not, but as long as we continue down a path where the best plan we can come up for a teenager struggling with suicidal thoughts is 17 days on a gurney, and sedated, inside of an ER, we are not that society.
Reviews Elsewhere – The Book of Burnout – Bev Aisbett
I stumbled across this review from Verushka on Twitter yesterday. (Hey, it’s still good for something, sometimes!) Her description got my attention, and I thought it might also interest some of you:
What is this about?
Burn out; the different types — from carers to COVID and more. And some straightforward advice you probably already know, but might need a reminder of. I know I did.
What else is this about?
Mental health in today’s COVID, online, WFH world.
Sharing – People Aren’t ‘Addicted’ to Wearing Masks, They’re Traumatized
‘ve been describing it to friends and coworkers as “the inability to just turn off the fear of other people and their germs”. Because, in some ways, that’s exactly what it was. I’ve spent a year plus barely leaving my house. Sure, I worked from home even before the pandemic, but it’s an extreme sport now, going into the back yard is an adventure into a strange and exotic place, let alone being around other people.
Yesterday, however, I did manage to get out and meet up with a friend and former coworker. I won’t say it wasn’t awkward. But, it wasn’t as awkward as my anxiety had built it up in my head, mostly because I think we both knew it was awkward, and went out of our way to figure out what we were comfortable with. We met in the office building where she works, wearing masks. She asked if I wanted to keep being masked walking to lunch, and we agreed to not, and to sit outside to be safer. And she asked before giving me a hug after lunch.
It was an important lesson to me, that we need to navigate this together with the people we care about, and meet them at the level where they are comfortable. It’s not about racing to be the most “normal” group, it’s about making sure everyone comes along, and is comfortable, because we’ve all dealt with various levels of trauma over the last 14-15 months, trauma that will show up in a variety of ways. There’s nothing wrong with people who are slower to feel comfortable, they are just doing what they can. I’d rather meet them where they are, and where I am, than not see them at all anymore, or shame them about their own hesitation. It’s not a race.
