• Sharing – Who Gets to Be Mentally Ill?

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    So, someone like me, a middle-aged, professional, white male, can talk about struggling and get encouragement, pointed to good resources that are affordable for me, and there’s hope that I’ll get better. Someone living near poverty will say the same thing, and we start looking at whether they should have their kids removed from the home or how we can keep them away from a “safe” society.

    It gets worse if they are not white and/or have a more serious mental health issue.

    That’s not right. Everyone deserves quality mental health care. We shouldn’t divide who gets the care and who doesn’t based on what kind of mental health issue they have or who they are. That’s no way to solve this issue.

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    Information about Childhood Trauma

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    I stumbled upon this post from Psych Central today that I hadn’t seen before. As I read it, I considered sharing it and pulling out a quote to focus on, like I sometimes do, but I decided not to. I decided that because there are multiple things you should go read. The article talks about the signs of childhood trauma, the causes of trauma, and some suggestions for treatment.

    Then the author, Melissa Gooden, suggests books for parents, caregivers, and kids, links to places where they can learn more or get help, etc.

  • Consider The Time of Day When Scheduling Therapy

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Let me acknowledge this first, as soon as I saw the headline of this article, I immediately thought, “who gets to choose what time of day they go to their therapy appointments? You take whatever you can get!”

    Is There A Best Time Of Day For Therapy? Here’s What Therapists Say

    That’s not wrong. On the other hand, I think there are some good points to consider when you choose, if you have a choice, about the time of day.

  • Is Online Therapy Dying?

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Even though some companies might have gotten this all wrong, we still have the same issues we’ve had with mental health services that we’ve had for years. It’s too difficult for too many people to access. Technology can help eliminate some hurdles preventing people from getting help. That is worth doing when it’s done right. Those services can and should go away when it’s not done right. The fact that many are indicates that chasing money is not the way.

    That shouldn’t ever be the way. It doesn’t mean online therapy itself is a bad idea, though. We must be careful to get it right.

  • Sharing – Growth Requires Unlearning as Much as Learning

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    As children in an abusive situation, we may have learned a lot of things that helped us survive that situation. Outside of that situation, as adults, however, it may be time to unlearn some of those things.

    For example, we can’t learn to trust a person as an adult until we first unlearn that “fact” we took from childhood that no one was to be trusted. We can’t learn to love ourselves until we unlearn the blame and shame we took upon ourselves due to the abuse.

  • Sharing – The Problem of Male Grief

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    When my wife and I both lost our parents in a short period, I was thankful that there were people in our lives who gave us space to grieve and checked in on both of us. I’m also acutely aware of how different the reactions were as well. Part of that was the difference in relationships, my wife was much closer to her parents than I was to mine, but there was also an undertone where I was expected to be less emotional about it than she was. Again, plenty of people did better, but it was still there.

    I also recognize that I was lucky to have people in my life who saw that. Many men do not have any space to grieve or process emotions other than anger. For those men, read the whole thing and learn how to create space.