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Sharing – Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent’s Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age
ByMikeM April 26, 2022April 26, 2022 Reading Time: 2 minutes

We would do well with more of this question and a deeper analysis of “says who” and less outrage. They won’t make it easy for us to do that, so we will have to do it for ourselves, and we’re going to have to teach the next generation.

Otherwise we will continue to see social media eat away at our mental health instead of being a tool that could help it by providing us with a community of people with shared interests.

Read More Sharing – Raising Critical Thinkers: A Parent’s Guide to Growing Wise Kids in the Digital Age
Book Reviews

Reviews Elsewhere – The Strange & Curious Guide to Trauma by Sally Donovan
ByMikeM April 25, 2022April 24, 2022 Reading Time: 1 minute

I came across this review when someone shared it on social media, and it got picked up and passed around a bit. The review is from the Foster Talk page, which is aimed at Foster families and intersects the topics here when we talk about childhood trauma. Ruth Willets shared this about the book, which might be of interest to many of you who have teens and kids who have experienced trauma, or maybe even some young adults who could use some help understanding what trauma does to us.

Read More Reviews Elsewhere – The Strange & Curious Guide to Trauma by Sally Donovan
Book Reviews

Reviews Elsewhere – The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How we Learn from Love and Loss.
ByMikeM March 25, 2022March 25, 2022 Reading Time: 3 minutes

Losing a spouse, parent, sibling, etc. for me would be different than losing one of my friends. I love them differently, and I imagine I would grieve differently.. Losing anyone you love hurts but you likely have a variety of different relationships with people so it only makes sense that you would grieve them differently too, and then it also becomes obvious that we all will grieve differently from each other. There’s no straight line, there’s no “normal” way to grieve, there is just one individual processing the loss of another person that they had a unique connection to.

Wherever you are in that process is where you are. It’s not a contest and it’s not a pre-defined timeline. It’s a loss and you are free to mourn that.

Read More Reviews Elsewhere – The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How we Learn from Love and Loss.
Links

Sharing – America’s Lack of Bereavement Leave Is Causing a Grief Crisis
ByMikeM February 21, 2022February 21, 2022 Reading Time: 3 minutes

So people who are grieving do it privately. They barely function through the workday and then go home and grieve by themselves. They are left to process grief without any community and the support that provides. They are left to feel like there is something wrong with them because they still miss their loved ones as if that is somehow not normal.

It is normal, we don’t simply forget the people we lose or the tragedies we experience and then move on. It sticks with you. You feel it again on birthdays and holidays, in places where you are reminded of them when you want to pick up the phone and tell them some exciting news. That doesn’t just go away after a set amount of time.

We should stop pretending that it should and start making sure everyone has some space to grieve, no matter how long it’s been.

Read More Sharing – America’s Lack of Bereavement Leave Is Causing a Grief Crisis
Links

Sharing – What American Mental Health Care Is Missing
ByMikeM February 14, 2022February 14, 2022 Reading Time: 2 minutes

We actually know the things that can offer hope, we just don’t have a system that can deliver them. Our system is broken, the medical community can offer medicine and some limited treatment options but the day-to-day support and the work to reach a state of something more than symptom reduction doesn’t actually exist for most people.

This has to change. Go read more of what he has to say, I think for many of you it will seem familiar, but maybe provide some hope that we are not alone in seeing it.

Now if we can just find enough of us to care enough to fix it. We should all want to, mental health issues will happen to someone we all know and care about, eventually. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to offer a system that does not involve homelessness and prison time for far too many?

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Links

Sharing – Self-help resources can encourage victim-blaming of individuals with depression, study finds
ByMikeM February 9, 2022February 9, 2022 Reading Time: 2 minutes

There’s no language in this belief system for “some other person decided to hurt you for no reason at all and it had nothing to do with you”. There can’t be any language for that, because the entire system is self-centered.

The world isn’t. So please stop telling people who have suffered real harm that it’s all just lessons to learn, that simply excuses away harmful behavior, provides overly simple “fixes” for mental health issues, and places the blame for it square on the victim. That’s no way to support anyone.

Read More Sharing – Self-help resources can encourage victim-blaming of individuals with depression, study finds