I wanted to take a moment to share this with the parents and other adults who may not know how to approach this with kids.
There is so much good advice that I don’t have anything to add, other than to remember how many children don’t tell anyone for years, if ever. This is why the topic is so important.
It’s been trialed in several areas, sending out a mental health team instead of the police to respond to certain kinds of calls. Typically calls that involve a mental health crisis, addiction, etc. What we didn’t have yet were real studies to show whether this was having the desired effect. It’s early, but this is promising:
There is so much truth to this. My time dealing with DID and going missing wasn’t all over the local news, but this was absolutely true. “When you return from missing, the space you’re returning to is no longer safe. You’ve just proven it’s fragile – that your mind and body aren’t as secure there…
I may not necessarily agree with everything on Dr. Zoe’s list, but I am on-board with the idea of knowing ahead of time what kinds of activities, people, etc. will help take care of your mental health when you need it. You and I may not have a current mental health diagnosis right now, but we all are having low days, struggle days. Doing something about those, might just help us avoid spiraling into a situation where we do end up with something more serious.
