This has been my experience, and from talking to many other survivors over the years, I know it’s fairly common. “A PTSD sufferer can have trauma memories that are alarmingly vivid and, at the same time, infuriatingly vague. Or, in some cases, there is total amnesia. This paradox has been at the heart of the…
Yesterday I shared some bad news from the UK about how their system was failing to meet the needs of children dealing with abuse. In an effort to be fair, here’s the situation in the US, told through one women’s story, and statistics like this one: “There is only one practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist…
The number is startling, but we also have to acknowledge that it shouldn’t be surprising. We already know that the stigma associated with coming forward prevents many survivors from even talking about their abuse until years later, and that they pay a heavy mental health price during those years in general. We also know the…
Talking is important. Reaching out is important, That is the first step to dealing with mental health struggles, but it’s just the first step. Stop there, and well, we see what happened to Natasha’s friend: “In fact, he had been incredibly open about his mental health struggles for years and my friend, as well as…
I think this is something we all need to take to heart, and spend more time thinking about: “When someone commits sexual abuse over a long period of time, our first instinct may be to question how they were able to keep their crimes hidden. For many of us, it can be difficult to comprehend…
These are, indeed, sobering statistics coming out of the UK: “The latest research indicates that one in eight children now has a diagnosable mental health disorder — up from one in 10 in 2004. But these are just the reported cases. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45. Today, that…
