988 Hotline Struggling with Growing Pains?

988 Hotline Struggling with Growing Pains?

What if the operators on the line do get the necessary training and we make all the improvements we can make as we learn how to do this better, and there is just no system to hand the caller off to? Because I feel like that might be the case for some callers. The call is a door to care, but is the follow-up care available?

Sharing – I’m NOT going to heal everything

Sharing – I’m NOT going to heal everything

It’s all forward-looking. It celebrates how far I’ve come without constantly constantly reminding myself of what I haven’t done. In Todd’s words, it allows me to simply be human, like every other adult. In the end, isn’t that what we all want, to not see ourselves as the freak abuse survivor, but as an adult like other adults? With strengths and weaknesses, with quirks, and with success alongside failures?

We need to let ourselves be human and create a life where we can feel safe to be human.

Insights from While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence.

Insights from While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence.

As I read the rest of her insights, I realized this is where it all starts. We don’t have a mental health care system. If we had some semblance of a system the other four insights would go without saying. We’d see mental health patients as human beings, we would listen to them about their lived experiences, we’d have support systems for families, and we’d understand that despite all the effort and love put in, some people would still lose the battle, just like we do with cancer and every other illness.