Shared Links (weekly) June 22, 2025
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Unless you live with post-traumatic stress disorder, it can be hard to understand why an event from the past can still affect someone now. You may wonder why they just can’t “forget about it,” or get confused when seemingly low-stress situations evoke a strong reaction. But for people with post-traumatic stress disorder, their brain actually…
As many of you know, we spent much of 2019 grieving. Then, we spent most of 2020, and the early parts of 2021 dealing with a global pandemic. Now that I have been vaccinated, I am also realizing just how much PTSD I’m dealing with. As I have read a few times in the last couple of weeks about others, I am now in a situation where I should feel pretty safe, but I don’t. I’ve spent 2 years waiting for someone else I know to die, and then doing my best to not be near anyone. I can’t just turn that off now that I have been vaccinated. I still get extremely anxious when I have to be somewhere. I still pay very, very careful attention to anyone around me when I’m in public, and just generally spend that time being on edge, constantly. It’s exhausting. It makes me want to stay home, and avoid people. My being vaccinated didn’t change that at all.
The series, obviously, focuses on situations in Oregon, but I believe there are a lot of similar stories playing out around the country, so this whole series really gives us a lot to consider, and talk about. For example, one of the articles talked a lot about the stress of living as a young person…
This, in a nutshell, is an example of the problem we face. “Since its grand opening in 2002, this unit—the only place in eastern Montana where a person with a mental health emergency can be admitted for inpatient care—has languished in a state of desertion more often than not. The problem isn’t a lack…
I’ve written before about the ACE studies and surveys, and if you’ve read those you know that I think everything about ACE scores needs to be taken with a grain of salt. However, until my wife shared this news article from her alma mater I had not noticed that the question about childhood sexual abuse is somewhat more specific than it should be. Apparently, Robyn Dolson noticed it too, and decided to use her thesis work investigating why, and how it impacts the results. In short, the question about sexual abuse refers to being abused by an adult or someone 5 years or older than you.
As many of us can attest, that leaves out quite a few survivors who were abused by someone in their peer, or a slightly older, group, which happens quite frequently.
What we see here is what we see for a lot of mental health solutions, it works for some, and doesn’t work for others. Mental health is complicated. As the article points out, if the school environment is hurting student mental health or they are living in an environment at home that does the same, mindfulness isn’t going to change that and isn’t likely to have much of an overall impact even if they engage.
It’s complicated. The solutions are going to be complicated as well. I’d like some simple mindfulness training to be “the answer” for everyone too, but it just isn’t.
On the other hand, if it helps you, keep doing it.