I found myself reading this interview with Dr. Mary Koss recently, and while I’m not 100% sure about the prospect of “Restorative Justice”, as she refers to it, I think that often, when we think about child sexual abuse, we fall into the same misconceptions about the legal system that she refers to when talking more broadly about sexual assault.
Namely, that the legal system is not really designed to assist with the healing of a victim.
I was going to share this article without comment, but I also realized that I really, really, want you to read Johnnie’s last two paragraphs, because this is vital: “I believe today, there are many among us who have recovered from mental health issues and yet no one knows their story. We all want to…
We ask people during times like Suicide Prevention Month to talk, to reach out, to check on their friends, and start conversations, etc. But do we model those behaviors in our day-to-day lives? Do you create an environment, at work, school, home, or in our own communities where talking about mental health issues is just something that we all do, and not a shocking thing to talk about? Because I can guarantee you, someone who is dealing with depression isn’t going to see a social media post about reaching out and do just that without having someone they know will actually help to reach out to.
The only way people will know that is if they see that behavior and hear these stories in their own community. Can you be part of creating that?
One event that we didn’t comment on during the height of the initial Pandemic lockdown last spring was the fact that the annual BBC Children in Need (CiN) Telethon shifted from November back to 23rd April to join forces with the Spring Telethon Comic Relief (or Sport Relief in alternate years). The initial “night” of…
I found this entire article to be really interesting, because what child abuse survivor doesn’t struggle with this exact thing in one form or another? “The hardest part of recovering from a toxic childhood isn’t just coping with the fact that your emotional needs weren’t met or that you were actively neglected or even marginalized,…
The study looked at the fact that among girls who had been sexually abused, there are marked increases in mental health diagnosis, and also physical health issues like urinary tract infections, etc. I think either of these is a possibility, maybe even both are true for different survivors. But, I also know that I’m looking…
