Shared Links (weekly) April 6, 2025
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Sharing – ‘We Know How to Solve the Mental Health Crisis. Will We Actually Do It?’
The reality is that we know what kinds of societal change will positively impact mental health. We know that poverty, pollution, discrimination, violence, etc., are environmental factors that harm mental health. We know that medication, exercise, touching grass, etc. won’t make the slightest difference for those factors. (They may help some of the things that factor into mental health issues, but when you’re unhoused or being discriminated against, a walk in the park won’t change that.)
We also know what it will take to correct some of those environmental factors, lift people out of poverty, invest in local resources to support each other, eradicate discrimination by creating inclusive programs aimed at the needs of different groups, etc.
The only question is whether we care enough to do those things, and the overwhelming answer we’ve gotten in recent months is no.
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Sharing – Taking Care Of Your Mental Health: An Obligation In 2025
Life is complicated and uncertain. Our mental state is impacted by that every single day. It is no longer a choice to do the things that support our mental health. I would add that it’s not just an obligation we have to ourselves but an obligation we owe each other. Take care of yourself, and support other people when you can. That’s the only way forward.
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Sharing – ‘If you’re the bloke it’s your fault’: Why Jeffrey believed he couldn’t be a victim of abuse
Boys get molested. I was one of them. Lots of other men you know were likely molested, too. Some of them may not even know because we weren’t taught that boys could be victims of sexual abuse. After all, if our bodies reacted, we must have wanted it somehow.
This reasoning is so outdated and harmful. Men who were sexually abused as children deserve to have their stories told. All survivors deserve access to support and resources. It’s the very least we can do.
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Threatening to harm children by defunding the NCMEC
As Marisa Kabas, who should be credited with bringing all of this to light, points out, the NCMEC website no longer talks about the increased risk of trafficking to LGBTQ+ youth. They can no longer provide resources and education about those risks or information about how to support those kids. They are even expected to dead-name missing trans kids in all announcements.
They are leaving LGBTQ+ kids behind. The alternative to doing that was not to have funding to run the only reporting agency for online CSAM, the clearinghouse used by many online services and law enforcement agencies to combat CSAM and trafficking, and the primary source of information about missing children in the US.
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Sharing – How to support someone with depression
We often underestimate how much we can help because we live in a society constantly looking for a quick solution to problems. Depression doesn’t have that, which leads us to feel helpless to solve the problem. That being said, there is nothing better when dealing with depression than knowing that someone (preferably multiple people) is going to be with you during the struggle. Everything seems overwhelming when you’re in the midst of depression; you need someone to make it just a little less so.
