Shared Links (weekly) March 31, 2024
I would say the same thing about healing from abuse. It often leaves us as adults with many, many fears. Break tasks down into small parts. Only tackle small fears one at a time. If the task is too big, it may be too daunting to tackle. Your confidence will grow stronger achieving some success…
“When children run away from home or care, they are often running from something. Theirs are childhoods blighted by abuse, violence, family instability, and parental drug or alcohol misuse. For girls particularly, running away can be an attempt to escape sexual violence and abuse.” It’s definitely something those who work with runaways should stop to…
Detecting Sexual Grooming
Nourish November: November 13- Self-care is not selfish
Your Mental Health Comes First.
This is Why I Kept Sexual Abuse a Secret for 20 Years
How Mental Illness Robbed Me of Empathy
Can stand-up comedy help mental health?
Surviving Suicide: You are Not Alone
More importantly, for those of us trying to advocate for mental health, we need to realize that there is no simple answer. Turning off all of social media is not going to cure the mental health crisis. It won’t change everything that is going on in all of our lives and across the world. Pretending that we’d all have much better mental health if we just killed off Instagram or TikTik isn’t going to make the county’s mental health problems go away.
So why aren’t we discussing the harder problems that have some proven research to show the negative effects on children’s lives? School shootings, violence, racism, oppression of LGTBQ and minorities, poverty, lack of access to mental health care, etc.
One of the lessons that should be required learning for many of us, is that even with family, we get to set boundaries. We get to decide how much, or how little, we interact with other human beings. Also, what I decide is the way I want to set my boundaries, doesn’t mean yours need to be the same. As Carly lays out in the article below, there are quite a few things to consider, but it is your decision, and you should always put your own mental health first.
So let’s get this out there. Tomorrow is a day to raise awareness about the importance of mental health. It’s an opportunity for anyone who is dealing with mental health issues to see that there are many people who get it, and do support them, even if only virtually. It’s also a day to be reminded, sometimes literally, that there is still far too much stigma, and far too little investment, in mental health. That’s not fun. That’s not uplifting.
Taking care of yourself is an incredibly important part of looking out for your own mental health. Tomorrow is also Saturday. If your mental health will be better off by you not being online tomorrow, go do exactly that. Go enjoy your weekend, and know that I see you, and I feel what you’re saying. Your frustration is my frustration too. Being tired of the stigma, and how hard it is for people to get help is normal. I’m exhausted. I’m tired of talking about it, tired of reading about it, and tired of seeing stories of people who can’t get help when they need it, all around the world. I’m also tired of all the people on social media who make talking about it even harder than it already is, who want to troll, or just create drama because it’s never enough for them.
Again, I’m exhausted. I also know how incredibly lucky I was the get help, and I want that same thing available for everyone. So, I’ll find away to continue talking about it here, while also taking care of my own mental health. I hope you will too, even if we don’t all take part in the same events.