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Sharing – I’m tired of people telling me to go and get therapy?-it’s not that simple
As she goes on to say in the post below, when someone needs help, and needs support, simply telling them to get therapy and going about your own life not thinking about that conversation again is not enough. We have to recognize that therapy may not be available for them, or it may be quite a long time before they can get therapeutic help. What do they do until then? What can we do, as a society, to make mental health care more accessible to everyone? Because right now, it’s not accessible to a very large number of people who need it.
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Sharing – A suicide safety plan saved my life. Here’s what it looks like, and why it worked
So, maybe before you or someone you love, gets into a crisis situation, it would be a good idea to work on this kind of plan with a professional, so that when you really need it, it’s there. Of course, as Kimberly points out, that means we should be able to talk about our struggles and our own risks when it comes to suicidal thoughts in the first place without the fear of being stigmatized.
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Shared Links (weekly) June 13, 2021
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Friends mourn Steve Austin, former pastor and author who wrote about suicide and mental health
– I didn’t know Steve the way others did. I followed him on social media, read and shared some of his stuff, and will miss having that voice out here.
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Want to save the children? How child sexual abuse and human trafficking really work
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“The Me You Can’t See”: How To Stop Hiding Behind Your Hurt and Start Sharing Your Story
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Sharing – 3 Less-Known Reasons Why Men Don’t Talk about Mental Health
The article below goes into some of that, and it is definitely something to consider. Do we “excuse” men who self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, are irritable and lash out, etc. as just men acting out? Or do we consider that those are depression symptoms just as much as the ones we see in the media every day? (Which are almost always women looking very sad, and mostly white women at that.)
Frankly, if I considered being irritable, drinking and acting out as just part of being a man, I probably wouldn’t even know to talk about my mental health. We need to be sure and talk about all aspects of mental health, and what symptoms might look like, before we can expect people to know enough to talk.
For men, we may not be doing a good enough job.
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Sharing – 11 Factors That Increase the Risk of Child Sexual Abuse
For example, if we know that kids who don’t understand boundaries, are lonely, live in stressful family situations, and do not have open communication with other people in their lives, are more likely to be sexually abused, what does that mean when a teen comes out and is not accepted by their family? Or when a blended family becomes dysfunctional, or a kid with disabilities is not taught boundaries but kept hidden away from others?
You have kids who are lonely, who don’t feel safe and loved, who don’t understand boundaries, etc.
If a kid who’s lonely and lacking in self esteem is at risk. And a kid who identifies as LGBTQ+ is at risk, can we stop for a minute and consider that it’s not being LGBTQ+ that is a risk factor, it’s how much more likely that kid is to be lonely and lacking in self-esteem?
And thus, the cycle continues. When it shouldn’t. We know what it is about disabled kids, kids from blended families, or LGBTQ+ kids that make them more prone to abuse, mental health issues, and suicide. It’s not their reality, it’s the responses to their reality that create the risk factors. The things that make them more likely to be loners, disconnected from family support, lacking safe adults to communicate with, etc.
So maybe we should focus on being more supportive of all kids?
And, since we’re on the topic and it is June. Happy Pride!
