Talking about my mental disorders made me feel like an outsider If faced with a toothache, I went to the dentist. When my vision wasn’t perfect, I paid a visit to my optometrist. So, when my mental and emotional well-being was off-balance, my natural reaction was to visit a doctor specializing in this category: a…
“You do have worth. You will overcome this. You won’t be sad forever.” There is always hope for someone struggling with depression, Rabe said. “People are resilient human beings, and they can do so much more than they think they’re capable of.” Also, remember that “how hopeless you feel does not correlate to whether you…
When Meg was 12, her mother, Annie, found herself unable to look at her. Seeing her daughter made Annie feel unsettled, at times almost angry. At first, she couldn’t figure out why. “And then, Meg turned 13 and suddenly, everything slid into place for me,” Annie says. “I found myself thinking, ‘She’s so tiny. She…
Despite their inherent instinct to help each other, many firefighters and first responders feel there is still a vivid stigma that surrounds seeking professional help, specifically from a counselor. Hodgens explains that when he first started coming to FoF, he was “going through some really dark times, some really hard situations in life that I…
“A few months ago we put out the call to our community asking what they wish had happened in the wake of their abuse. We read each email and felt the pain, the anger, the frustration, the sadness. The loss. We decided to use their words to help parents and other adults understand what a…
“Frankly, whichever figure we go with, if this was a communicable disease such as measles or rubella, mass inoculations and huge public health campaigns would be the order of the day. But it’s not – it’s the rape and violation of children, so silence and turning away, wholly or partially, are the responses.” Unfortunately, this…
