An interesting little snippet from CBS about Al Nixon, and the good he does just by sitting on a park bench in the morning and listening. I thought it worth sharing because it demonstrates the power of listening in terms of making people feel seen, and connected. It’s not therapy, and it won’t fix everything but as he says “When you listen to someone, you let them know I value you”.
I am, obviously, not a Person of Color, but I recognize that this quote is true, and want to share these kinds of resources as a way to help where I can.
Heck, for me, these words were pretty close to exact quotes from the person who abused me. I wanted this because I’m bad, if anyone found out about it, or the way my body reacted, they would know who I really am and reject me. It’s part and parcel of being abused, believing this.
Of course, none of it is true, but when this is what your own mind tells you every single day for years and years? It’s not going away that easy, so maybe spend some time reading links like the one below about how to combat toxic shame.
At least we can consider the possibility that we are actually doing the thing the abuser claimed would happen if the child ever told, a big, scary deal that kids would do anything to avoid, including remain silent about abuse.
If you have a few minutes to learn about this important topic, I highly recommend it. You should also consider sharing it with your own networks, and let them know you found it here.
This is a really detailed, long-term study and shows us something I think many of us suspect. That kids who develop depression are more likely to go on to struggle as adults in many different ways.
Also, that the kids who developed symptoms and got treatment, showed fewer issues than kids with symptoms who were unable to get treatment, but not as few as kids who didn’t have symptoms to start with.
