I agree with Rachel on this, offering positive platitudes is often easier than allowing ourselves to feel anything, so it’s what we offer people who are feeling so much more than that. “I truly believe that ultimately, we all want to be listened to and supported. We don’t want to be told why our feelings…
I was so glad to see that Nicole is seeing her own therapist and developing her own support, and that the article refers to her own trauma. It is trauma to deal with the possibility that your loved one will not be here anymore because of what their own depression is doing to them. We should take that very seriously, and act accordingly.
Under the heading of “reviews elsewhere” comes this review of a short film called “Rope”, a raw, honest depiction of online bullying.
““If you’re in your 40s or 50s and someone sends you a cruel message, you can probably brush it off, but if you’re 15 it is much more likely to affect you because you haven’t had the chance to build up that mental resilience.”
Really, there are two things you can do to fight falling for misinformation. You could try to never be angry, but I don’t think that’s realistic. There are things to be angry about, rightfully. We can’t go through live just not feeling anything.
The thing I think we can do, and the thing I work hard at myself, is staying humble. Never assume you “know” everything, that you never make mistakes, that there is nothing more for you to learn. That’s how you fight misinformation, and it’s also really helpful when it comes to fighting negative thoughts, depression, anxiety, etc.
This is not great. Medication can be incredibly helpful, but it’s really not a “fix” for depression.
“Lucy Schonegevel, the deputy campaigns director at the mental health charity Rethink, said there was a “big risk of antidepressants being prescribed with no support”, adding that such medications should “go hand in hand” with therapy.
Her concerns were echoed by the mental health campaigner Natasha Devon, who said: “People are going to their GPs with symptoms of mental illness and being sent away with a bag of medication, having been put on an 18-month waiting list.””
As abuse survivors, it might be difficult to believe that most people actually want to be kind, and want to connect to other people. It wasn’t our experience growing up, and let’s face it, better safe than sorry, right? Why trust anyone?
