Survivors News and Reviews

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Video – How Trauma Affects Memory
ByMikeM September 27, 2021September 26, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

I saw this video shared on Lauren’s Kids Facebook page and wanted to share it here because I think what the folks who work at this Children’s Advocacy Center have to say about childhood trauma, and what children remember is incredibly valuable.

We often expect child abuse survivors, especially when the abuse was so recent, to remember the details, and be able to provide an exact timeline of events. When they struggle to do that it becomes a little too easy for us to start doubting that they are telling the truth, instead of understanding that this is exactly the way it’s supposed to work.

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Sharing – Toxic Positivity: Harmful or Helpful
ByMikeM September 23, 2021September 23, 2021 Reading Time: 2 minutes

It’s the insistence that everyone around you also is positive all the time, demanding “Good Vibes Only” as the article points out, that worries me. Because people in real pain, social issues that cause real harm, etc. are not good vibes. When a team was winning gold medals, no one wanted to do more than focus on that success, and repeated stories of abuse went ignored. Is our constant need for positivity forcing us to ignore racism, homelessness, abuse, and many other social issues that we need to do more than give passing support to on social media?

Maybe most importantly, are there people in our lives right now hurting, who desperately need our support, who we are ignoring because they bring us down?

Read More Sharing – Toxic Positivity: Harmful or Helpful
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Sharing – Create Support Network
ByMikeM September 20, 2021September 20, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

These are all possible, they don’t require one person to fix things, which is where I suspect many of us get stuck. We want to support a loved one, or friend, who is struggling and in need of support, but that looks like a lot, probably more than we can handle. Frankly, it is more than you can handle, that’s why we all need the larger network. It only makes sense!

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Sharing – Trauma-Related Dissociation: Symptoms, Treatment, Coping, and More
ByMikeM September 16, 2021September 15, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

Of course, using this same defense mechanism in later life can be a problem, and when your brain has used this as a sort of “last resort” choice to survive, that might also mean that your memory of the event isn’t what others would like it to be. That’s OK, it helped you survive, that is the important thing. The rest is irrelevant if you don’t survive, so we are glad about that. Once you’ve survived, we can work on the rest of it.

Read more about the what, why, and how of dissociation at the link below.

Read More Sharing – Trauma-Related Dissociation: Symptoms, Treatment, Coping, and More
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Sharing – Sexual violence within families: – It’s not a private matter
ByMikeM September 15, 2021September 14, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t read a story in the news, or on social media that follows a similar path.

Child abused by a family member
The child tells someone in the family
The child isn’t believed or is accused of trying to embarrass the family.
Or, the child tells someone outside of the family
The child isn’t believed, or the person doesn’t want to make trouble for the parents.

Read More Sharing – Sexual violence within families: – It’s not a private matter
Announcements

Seattle Times Launching Mental Health Project
ByMikeM September 14, 2021September 13, 2021 Reading Time: 1 minute

I’m not in the Pacific Northwest any longer, but if you are, or if you’re interested in learning about the issues surrounding mental health in Washington State, which I assume are going to be similar to everywhere else in the US, they will be launching a two-year project to look at mental health.

Read More Seattle Times Launching Mental Health Project

Sharing – Trauma-Related Dissociation: Symptoms, Treatment, Coping, and More

Seattle Times Launching Mental Health Project

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