Don’t Get Distracted – Big Problems Require Big Solutions, not Simple Ones
To believe we can solve the teen mental health crisis by forcing kids off social media and doing nothing about all these other things is foolish.
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Sharing – The concerning rise of the “Trauma Essay”
Jake has concerns, and I think we should be concerned about this. “High school students are being encouraged to write about their struggles, hardships, and traumatic life experiences in order to be admitted into college & university. This therapist has some concerns.” Writing about trauma can be beneficial. I’ve always encouraged people to talk and…
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Sharing – The Fun Is Why
I feel like this is something that has gotten continuously worse over the years too. Kids who never get to just play, but are fully booked with one after-school activity after another. Teens are under constant pressure to spend their time doing things that look good on college applications. College-aged young adults are about filling out the resume or getting into the best graduate school programs, only to graduate into jobs that expect them to always be on call, to learn and grow themselves on their own time, all while social media culture tells them they should also have a side-hustle or three.
Having fun is time that could be spent on any of these accomplishments.
I’d flip that around. What’s the point of all of those accomplishments if you never have any fun?
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Sharing – “We cannot struggle alone”: Students learning mental health ‘first aid’ to identify friends in need
Again we see how being educated and open about mental health issues creates people who know what to do. We can’t get support from people who don’t know what to do and they don’t learn what to do when society remains unwilling to talk about mental health.
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Sharing – ‘My Husband Was Hospitalized, I Didn’t Tell People Why’
Imagine your spouse going into a hospital for surgery or an injury and having no help navigating that, and also trying to take care of a 12-year-old daughter without anyone else there to take care of a meal or two or transport your kid to school and other events. That’s the reality Amy, and many other families, find themselves in because we still live in a world where we aren’t supposed to admit to having mental health issues and where those are the kinds of secrets you keep within the immediate family only.
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Is Online Therapy Dying?
Even though some companies might have gotten this all wrong, we still have the same issues we’ve had with mental health services that we’ve had for years. It’s too difficult for too many people to access. Technology can help eliminate some hurdles preventing people from getting help. That is worth doing when it’s done right. Those services can and should go away when it’s not done right. The fact that many are indicates that chasing money is not the way.
That shouldn’t ever be the way. It doesn’t mean online therapy itself is a bad idea, though. We must be careful to get it right.
