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Sharing – Common Mental Health Advice We Should Actually Ignore Right Now
ByMikeM February 1, 2021February 1, 2021 Reading Time: 3 minutes

For example, I’m not anxious JUST because my brain is working overtime, or because I find myself focusing on the negative. I’m also anxious because over 400,000 people in the US have died from COVID-19 and a large number of people in my local area feel no need to change their behavior in acknowledgement of that fact.

You know what that is? That is reality, and there’s no amount of “good vibes” that is going to make that reality not a reality. It’s totally normal to feel anxious about that, and telling me to “think positive”, or get more sleep, or exercise, isn’t going to change that.

We all live in a very uncertain, and difficult, reality right now. The answer to social injustice and racism, again, is not just thinking positively about it. It’s having difficult, often painful, conversations about the topic. It’s about listening to other people’s experiences and working hard to understand the world differently than we did yesterday.

That too, is a source of anxiety.

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Sharing – Mental health books: Books to boost your mental health
ByMikeM January 29, 2021January 29, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

These are Joanne’s suggestions, and I wanted to share them with you all in the interest of offering some small reviews of books about mental health issues. As she says: ” I think everyone needs a self-care library – if you need a little inspiration for what to include in yours, here are some of…

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Sharing – Population vs Individual Prediction of Poor Health From Results of Adverse Childhood Experiences Screening
ByMikeM January 28, 2021January 28, 2021 Reading Time: 3 minutes

Now, here comes a study, linked below, that has done the real scientific research and found:

“ACE scores can forecast mean group differences in later health problems; however, ACE scores have poor accuracy in identifying individuals at high risk for future health problems.”

Yes, there are statistics that show that there’s an impact at the societal level from childhood trauma. We should be addressing those issues as a society, things like child poverty, parents in the prison system, abuse, neglect, etc. because we know that as we lessen those impacts on kids, and make resources available for the kids who’s trauma we can’t prevent, we can impact the overall increases in depression, addiction, crime rates, etc. that are a direct result of childhood trauma. But, at an individual level, these things aren’t fate. How one person navigates trauma and is impacted by it, is not going to come down to just the number of traumas they dealt with as a child. When we identify one person with 4 or more ACEs according to the survey, all that really tells us is that it’s basically 50-50 whether or not they are depressed, or there’s a close to 30% chance they’ve used illicit drugs, but a 70% chance they haven’t. One person is not going to neatly fit every category and shouldn’t be treated as if they do.

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Sharing – Facing Down a Mental Health Crisis
ByMikeM January 26, 2021January 26, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

The pandemic and other events have, perhaps, crystalized this reality for people, but let’s not kid ourselves. The lack of available treatment resources for many, many people has been a sad reality for years. Decades even.

Simply finding more therapists isn’t going to cut it. I’d agree with that conclusion from the article, and perhaps some of the ideas shared could help. I don’t know if they will, but I know what we currently do, doesn’t work for too many people.

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Sharing – Nine in ten female young offenders are victims of abuse, research finds
ByMikeM January 23, 2021January 23, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

“The vast majority of young women in contact with the criminal justice system have experienced significant trauma and disadvantage. This can be a key driver for their offending, whether that is being coerced into crime by a partner, sexually exploited or using drugs or alcohol to cope with what they have experienced.

In spite of that, when they then come into contact with the criminal justice system, too often the response does more harm than good or is retraumatising, such as the use of force, restraint or isolation.”

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Sharing – Trying to Stay Optimistic Is Doing More Harm Than Good
ByMikeM January 22, 2021January 21, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

We talk often about how to support someone who is struggling, and in those conversations, we talk about spending less time worrying about what to say, and more time just being present. On the other hand, there are absolutely things you should not say, and if you find yourself starting sentences with “At least”, I want you to reconsider.

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