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Sharing – Stigma is Killing Us
There’s simply no way you don’t know people struggling right now. Whether you want to consider the levels of anxiety and depression a disorder or a natural reaction to the state of the world today, we would all do well with more compassion and grace.
A lot more. People are dying without it.
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Sharing – The Best Way to Reduce Anxiety Is to Make Your Brain Feel Safe
I think back to my childhood and the sexual and physical violence I was subjected to. I struggle with anxiety because my brain is always going back to that time – a time when I was not safe! The things my brain learned then weren’t a failure of mental health; they were survival instincts. They were healthy reactions to an unsafe environment. My current challenge is unlearning them now that I am no longer in that unsafe environment. Asking me to do that while I was unsafe would have been dumb. The anxiety was trying to keep me alive.
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Sharing – Fans of fitness influencers exercise more – but they’re also more depressed
For every headline or expert who touts the “cure” to depression, anxiety, or other issues, there are always a large number of individuals who weren’t helped by it. In this study, we also have to recognize that social media accounts focused on fitness might be making things worse for people, causing them to obsess over their appearance and creating unhealthy relationships with food.
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An Example of Suicide Prevention Being About Many Different Things
For some people dealing with anxiety and depression, more exercise or time in nature might help. For a cross-country athlete, I doubt that is what they are lacking. The comments from the researchers in the article above made it clear to me that there are a multitude of reasons why the rate among student-athletes has been getting higher. That means the solutions are likely to include various options as well.
That’s not a bad thing. It just means we have to find what works best for us individually.
As I’ve repeatedly said, find what works for you and stick with it. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise or convince you to stop doing something that works for you. Don’t give up if what your friend or an online influencer does that works for them doesn’t work for you. Every one of these lives is worth the effort to find what will make them want to stay. That includes you.
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Sharing – Meet the people falling through the gaps of the mental health care system
We all deserve access to resources that would help us avoid becoming a danger to ourselves. These resources shouldn’t be limited to people like me, who are lucky enough to have family support to help cover the extra costs, and they shouldn’t require that we wait around for people to reach the point of needing to be hospitalized before we offer them any. That middle ground is full of people who deserve better.
