Abuse

  • Have You Been Labeled?

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The thing I suspect many people worry about, and something that makes me crazy to be honest, is when people see “abuse victim”, or especially “sexual abuse victim”, and their brain immediately takes the shortcut to everything society says about that label. Being a survivor of childhood abuse is not “one” thing, but having your identity boiled down to that “one” thing, is dehumanizing. This is especially true when the stereotypes that we believe about survivors, don’t match who we really are!

  • Links I’m Sharing (weekly) Sept. 6 2020

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    Toxic Shame and How to Overcome It

    How To Be A Mental Health Advocate

    Nancy Hogshead-Makar on Sexual Abuse in Olympics and College Sports

    When Your Mental Illness Comes in Waves

    Suicide Prevention Month

    Some interesting “lunch and learn” programs you may want to consider.

    We Can All Prevent Suicide

    Male suicides at highest rate in two decades, official data shows | UK News

    What Most People Don’t Know About Psychological Trauma

    Sexual minorities and suicide prevention

    Using Humor as a Coping Tool

  • Sharing – Sex Crimes Are Committed By People From All Walks of Life… and All Tax Brackets

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    I think the folks at Horowitz Law have got this right: “Most sex offenders, therefore, don’t fall into some easily-identifiable, logical category. They can be young or old, shy or outgoing, tall or short, and of course rich or poor. We wish this weren’t the case, of course. Because this reality leads to a disturbing…

  • Sharing – Many Sex Offender Registries Are Rife With Errors

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The whole idea of a registry was to ease the minds of panicked parents so they would check the public registry, know that their lovely, upper-class neighborhood didn’t have any offenders in it, and go back to ignoring any talk of their kids being at risk for sexual abuse.

    None of that has ever been true. As you read the story below, you’ll see that there are 25,000 offenders that law enforcement has completely lost track of, many of whom now live among poor communities where parents do not have the same resources that others do to keep their kids safe and have continued to offend.

    What you also won’t see is that registries do nothing, absolutely nothing, to protect against offenders who haven’t been caught and convicted. That would be the vast majority of cases, by the way.

  • |

    Links I’m Sharing (weekly)

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    How To Live With Someone Else’s Mental Illness
    PTSD Physical Symptoms Can Be Confounding for Sexual Assault Survivors
    Growing up I Often Heard “Therapy Is for White People”
    How the Pandemic Is Taking Its Toll on Our Mental Health
    One mental health solution: a kinder, gentler emergency department for people considering suicide
    Nearly three in four child abuse survivors without support, study finds
    Suicide After Suicide: What We Must Do to Break the Cycle
    Why Abused Children May Strive for Perfection

  • Sharing – How Feeling Not Good Enough Makes You Crave Validation

    ByMikeM Reading Time: 1 minute

    I also want to point out that this sense of being enough, having an internal sense of self and worth, is an important part of keeping children safe. Kids constantly on the lookout for external validation, are easier targets for grooming and abuse.

    How would you develop this sense of self in yourself? I have some ideas, but I want to hear from all of you too.