Shared Links (weekly) June 15. 2025
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Haven’t we been talking over and over again about the lack of human connection and the impacts on our mental health? Maybe if we spent a little more time complimenting each other when a job is well done, or on a new look, or a trait that we admire, we’d have more human connection in our days.
The point, however, is that having intrusive thoughts, anxious thoughts, is something we can talk about, even make jokes about. It happens. We can’t always control what messages our brains want to send us about what we should be afraid of. We control which ones we react to. We control knowing the difference between a realistic fear and an intrusive one.Â
Mostly, I feel like if we all admitted to having them, maybe it wouldn’t be something to freak out about when someone else has one.Â
No, this should not be the way to treat mental health. Sadly, when measured in terms of inmates who suffer from mental illness, the Dallas County Jail is the second-largest mental-health institution in the state — after the Harris County Jail in Houston. That is why local law-enforcement officials consistently identify the need for better…
Emotional neglect happens, and the damage it causes can be similar to being abused, in that a child will fail to develop a sense of themselves and their place in the world. As they become adults, they do not have to tools to conduct themselves in the adult world without a great amount of difficulty….
“So now I speak. Bravely, bluntly, honestly. However you want to look at it, I speak. I’m a sexual abuse survivor and I did exactly that – I survived. Even now as I write this, I’m aware that future employers and my father’s family can see my words but I refuse to bow down to…
Actually, I think it usually takes something like this, or the scandal in the Boy Scouts, etc, to remind people that oh yeah, sometimes it’s boys who are targeted en masse for sexual abuse. I suspect we don’t often think about it because, as it turns out, many men don’t feel like they can talk about having been abused.
That’s why it was a bit heartbreaking to read Phil Goldstein’s recent opinion piece:
French Catholic Church abuse report highlights the special toll faced by boys
As Phil points out, for a variety of reasons, male survivors tend not to talk about being an abuse victim, and the numbers back that up.