Shared Links (weekly) Mar. 16, 2025
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Sharing – When You Have a Lifelong Struggle With PTSD and Depression
It can be a struggle when so many of our friends and even professionals want to help us overcome abuse to “get back to” ourselves when there is no previous version of ourselves to use as a target. I don’t think this should be the goal anyway. The goal for any child abuse victim should not be to go back to being a younger version of themselves before the abuse, the goal should be to build a life after abuse. I didn’t find much healing in trying to remember my early childhood, but I found a ton of healing in having someone help me design the life I wanted to have as an adult and helping me feel worthy and capable of having that.
Sharing – You don’t have to earn your mental health struggles
There is so much wrong with this statement, but it’s also kind of where we are. “Yet those who feel lucky enough to have made it as far as they have — to attend a good college, to land a solid summer internship, to earn a coveted spot on a sports team or in a…
Sharing – Podcast: Countdown to Death: How Embracing Time Helps Us Live Fully
I decided to stay because I knew that, eventually, that final day was coming for me anyway. All of this was temporary.
I remind myself of that when I feel anxious or make a mistake in front of people. All of this is temporary. Whatever embarrassment I might feel at this moment, eventually, everyone involved will not be here to talk about it, and I won’t be here to be embarrassed by it.
I find that freeing. It is freeing to remember that I’m only here temporarily and to remind myself that I only have so much time to do the things I want to do and make the impact on people’s lives that I want to make.
Sharing – How my Facebook post about suicide uncovered so much hidden male pain and suffering
I have managed to be somewhat successful by society’s standard. I am also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. To assume that must mean I wasn’t that hurt by it, is to tell me that you know nothing of my life, or the lives of thousands of other men like me. Is it any wonder so many don’t come forward and talk about it?
But, as the article below points out, there are too many men in pain, with nowhere to go, for us to not talk about it. They deserve better.
Sharing – ‘We Know How to Solve the Mental Health Crisis. Will We Actually Do It?’
The reality is that we know what kinds of societal change will positively impact mental health. We know that poverty, pollution, discrimination, violence, etc., are environmental factors that harm mental health. We know that medication, exercise, touching grass, etc. won’t make the slightest difference for those factors. (They may help some of the things that factor into mental health issues, but when you’re unhoused or being discriminated against, a walk in the park won’t change that.)
We also know what it will take to correct some of those environmental factors, lift people out of poverty, invest in local resources to support each other, eradicate discrimination by creating inclusive programs aimed at the needs of different groups, etc.
The only question is whether we care enough to do those things, and the overwhelming answer we’ve gotten in recent months is no.
Link – Mental Illness in Youth Often Goes Undetected
Left untreated in childhood and early adulthood, we end up with adults with symptoms that get continually worse over time. She says that ideas of how mental illness “should look” are so prevalent, it is difficult to believe that someone who doesn’t look mentally ill could be struggling. In fact, a study out of Duke…
