Child Abuse and Mental Health Survivors Information - Issue #122
It's cold out there
As a resident of Louisiana, where Winter is nothing compared to much of the rest of the country, I try not to complain about the cold very often. After all, how much sympathy will I get when it’s 17 degrees Fahrenheit here, but below zero in many other places.
Then again, because really cold weather like that is rare, we aren’t prepared for it. As I like to remind people, we shut down because we don’t have the resources to do anything other than wait for the ice to melt.
Thank you for reading the Child Abuse and Mental Health Survivors newsletter. Each week, I share new blog posts and other resources that aim to help survivors of childhood abuse and those who are struggling with mental health issues feel less alone as we discuss the issues surrounding our issues.
For more information about me and why this newsletter exists visit the website - Child Abuse Survivor.
It’s the lack of resources that gets us stuck. You can talk about the people down here not being resilient when it comes to cold weather, or laugh at us for staying home because of a little ice, but it still comes down to the lack of resources. It doesn’t make sense to invest in a fleet of salt trucks here, because they’d get used so infrequently, there are better ways to spend money.
Mental health, on the other hand, doesn’t melt if you just wait long enough. There’s no warm-up coming in a day or two. When there are no resources available people get stuck. They don’t get help, they don’t have hope and they give up.
Unlike salt trucks in Louisiana, mental health services are not something we can skimp on. This is not an infrequent need in any of our communities, but you wouldn’t know that from the time, effort, and money we dedicate to it.
For many people in this country, the resources don’t exist, and that’s a shame.
New from the Blogs
he hard work is in looking at people who are different from us, who live different lives, make different choices, and recognize our common humanity. That's what Dr. King was talking about. Not being blind to our differences but being aware that we are all human and deserve respect based on that. So when a black man is lynched, or a prisoner dies from a lack of medical care, or someone struggling dies from suicide without access to mental healthcare, or because their own family won't accept them for who they are, we fail as a society. We fail to see human life as human life.
Employee Wellness Plans Are Likely Making No Difference
The research from the UK seems to indicate that many of our workplaces are just spinning their wheels with these programs while ignoring the real issues. The things that cause the high stress and burnout are systemic, and we're just telling people to meditate. That's not a solution; it's offloading the responsibility of creating a sustainable workplace for individual employees.
Mental Health Resources for the LGBTQ Community
In the past few days, I came across a couple of resources targeted toward the LGBTQ community, and I wanted to share them here.
Shared from Elsewhere
We talked about third places a few weeks ago on the blog, but here’s some more about them and the importance of them in our lives - Do You Have a Third Space in Your Life? Here's What Experts Want You to Know About Them
What do you think? - Does the body really “keep the score” of trauma?
How To Support Someone With Mental Health Issues
Effective support for mental health involves empathy, patience, and a non-judgmental approach.
Helping others helps ourselves. - The benefits of altruism
A couple of notes for parents:
Positive Adult Bond Buffers Against Depression in Kids Facing Adversity
I’ve been saying it for years. Kids with strong, open, relationships with adults in their lives are better off in so many ways.
From the Archives
Healing Isn’t a Smooth Timeline
At these times, I find it important to point out that healing journeys are rarely ever a straight line. Not only are all of our paths to healing different from one another, but they tend to work in fits and starts, more than in a straight line of progress.
Abuse survivors know this all too well. Society likes to imagine that we know evil when we see it. That there are “good guys” and “bad guys”, just like in the movies. The good guys always do the right thing, and the bad guys are always out to hurt everyone else. Real life simply doesn’t work that way. The person who volunteers at the hospital, or works with a youth sports league, can be the same person who goes home after having a few and beats their kids. The teacher being fired for molesting a young child can be the same woman who has spent her free time and dedicated herself to educating those same children.
Life Lesson From 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
As I watched the ending play out I couldn’t help but wonder how many lives might have played out differently if he hadn’t waited until he was gone to say those words to the people who needed to hear them? Why do we not say the things that need to be said, whether it’s a reminder that you do care about someone, or a gentle encouragement to be better, or a show of support for someone struggling? Why must we wait until someone is dying, or already gone, to say those words?
Thanks for reading. If you find this newsletter informative and helpful to you, spread the word. That’s the best way you can say thank you for the effort I put in each week.