Mental Health Resources for the LGBTQ Community
In the past few days, I came across a couple of resources targeted toward the LGBTQ community, and I wanted to share them here.
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How Are You, Really? And How To Answer, Really
Some replies are pithy, witty, and sarcastic, and one is even “meh.” But, what they get at is the underlying fact that answering “good,” “fine,” etc., is not the only way to answer the question. We can be honest with ourselves and each other. We can admit that right now, things are far from great. We can all be a little more human and recognize the struggle of being alive sometimes.
It won’t hurt us to be more up-front and honest with each other. That’s how you eliminate stigma.
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The Positive Impacts of Social Media
This is the world we live in. Not one where teens would be fine if only they didn’t have social media, but one where teens take to social media to get information about mental health and other issues that they can’t talk to anyone else about. Getting rid of social media for minors will leave a void similar to the one I had growing up, where no one I knew talked about abuse or mental health issues, so I assumed I was the only one dealing with it.
That’s not a better world. I think a world where minors can access information provided by advocates who educate themselves about the facts and share their own lived experiences is invaluable. That’s what following these accounts can provide.
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I Need You To Go Read This Collection of Research about Teens and Social Media
More importantly, for those of us trying to advocate for mental health, we need to realize that there is no simple answer. Turning off all of social media is not going to cure the mental health crisis. It won’t change everything that is going on in all of our lives and across the world. Pretending that we’d all have much better mental health if we just killed off Instagram or TikTik isn’t going to make the county’s mental health problems go away.
So why aren’t we discussing the harder problems that have some proven research to show the negative effects on children’s lives? School shootings, violence, racism, oppression of LGTBQ and minorities, poverty, lack of access to mental health care, etc.
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Reviews Elsewhere – The 5 Resets by Dr. Aditi Nerurkar
The list of five may not surprise anyone, but as you look at what you want to prioritize in the new year, these five things might be helpful, especially finding quiet time and breaks from all the noise in life to focus on what matters to you the most. I think that’s something many of us could use some help with. Check out the interview, and if you’ve read the book, let me know your thoughts.
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Sharing – More than 50,000 Americans died by suicide in 2023 — more than any year on record
Does American society care about mental illness or not? Right now, I would argue that our society would get a failing grade on whether we care.
