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Sharing – I’m a psychologist – and I believe we’ve been told devastating lies about mental health
Of course, he’s right. What he sees in the UK is the same thing I see from my “much less qualified but simply paying attention” seat in the US, and I’m sure many of you see where you live as well. Our current mental health resources are designed to help “fix” something wrong with us. I can’t say they even do that well, but at least that is the plan, and that plan makes sense for many mental health struggles.
It is only part of the picture, though. In all seriousness, how would the 6-8 therapist sessions a good insurance plan covers help someone escaping domestic abuse or trying to feed a family on a minimum wage job? How is the teenager being abused at home, bullied at school, and overwhelmed by the bleakness of what the world might look like when they are an adult supposed to find hope in one crisis text line conversation?
How will we provide hope and connection to people without first understanding their world and how they navigate it every day?
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The Daily Podcast Takes on Adolescent Mental Health
I found it interesting because I think the show does a good job of talking to people involved with treating kids and showing what the problem is. Starting with the conversation with a pediatrician, we learn that medical schools don’t effectively train doctors to deal with mental health issues. The risks to children they’ve been taught to deal with are external. These include viruses, broken bones from accidents, stitching cuts, etc. Today, however, the risks to kids have become much more internal. They are harming themselves due to mental health issues at rates we’ve never seen before. Doctors have not been trained to deal with those kinds of risks, and it is made clear that if you’re studying to be a pediatrician, you focus on the external risks because if a kid comes in with an internal risk, you’ll refer them to someone who specializes in mental health.
Of course, there’s a problem with that.
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Shared Links (weekly) Sept. 4, 2022
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Is My Total Lack of Motivation Depression or Just Pandemic Burnout?
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Mental Health Tips: 50 of Our All-Time Best Mental Health Tips to Help You Feel a Little Bit Better– None will solve everything, but they might make your day a little easier.
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Shared Links (weekly) Aug. 28, 2022
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How to Better Care for Your Child’s Mental Health As They Go Back to School This Year
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6 Reasons Why It’s Important to Speak About Men’s Mental Health
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Mental Health Expert Yohnit Spruch Talks About The Power Of Support Groups And Therapy
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Reminders for Coping With Your Grief or a Loved One’s Grieving Process
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Sharing – How Does Trauma Affect the Brain?
Read the whole thing. It’s important. Children amid trauma focus on surviving. Their brains focus on surviving and not development. They then grow up to be adults without a chance to develop fully.
The fix is to get kids with resources to help them develop as early as possible. (And to also get them removed from the things causing so much trauma.) The longer this goes on without any treatment, the more damage is done.
We may not be able to prevent every kind of childhood trauma, but we need to understand the impacts and how to treat them. Otherwise, we are simply leaving too many people behind.
