Child Abuse and Mental Health Survivors Information - Issue #97
Are you curious enough to stay and see what happens?
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. If you’ve tried to follow the resources I share on social media and find that the algorithm has decided for you to not show you the things we post, this is the best way to get caught up each week.
For more information about me and why this newsletter exists visit the website - Child Abuse Survivor.
I saw this on Instagram this week. “You don’t have to feel hopeful about the future, it’s enough to just be curious about what is coming.” It is eye-opening. I think it’s similar to what kept me alive in my worst moments.
It wasn’t even anything major. One day I might decide to stay and see if the Dodgers won the next day. On another, because it was supposed to storm and I was curious to watch the storm, or some other days just to get an update on a news story. Seriously, there is always something that I wanted to know and that became a reason to stay. What’s one more day, really? It becomes a week, the end of baseball season, the release date of a new movie, a Summer, etc.
Stay. You never know what will happen.
New from the Blogs
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.
Being There for Someone Requires Communicating
The bottom line? We can all play a role in improving mental health outcomes for ourselves and the people around us. We change the world one solid relationship at a time and we build those by communicating.
The Gap Between What Management Thinks about Mental Health and What Employees Experience
Leaders often throw benefits out to solve the problem, when work might actually be the problem. A great employee assistance program, health insurance that fairly covers mental healthcare, heck maybe they even threw in a few meditation app subscriptions for free. "See, we care!"
But the employee is quietly suffering from a lack of any connection to coworkers, poor communication with their boss, workplace stress, or even bullying and harassment, with no one in leadership to talk to. That's not going to make them feel like you care.
Shared from Elsewhere
Need a mental health day? - Taking a Pause: Essential Tips for Maximizing Your Mental Health Day
Why We Need to Keep Writing (and Reading) about Mental Health
Those of us who have experienced trauma at the hands of our mental illness or the mental health system must continue to write to expose the hard truths and injustices people around us suffer from every day. Those of us who haven’t need to sit down and read from writers who challenge our preexisting beliefs about mental health.
Our writing on mental health also needs to reach other people suffering from similar trauma.
Let's Get Real About Touch Deprivation - indeed, showing non-sexual affection for other adults seems to be something a lot of people have gotten uncomfortable with. I know sexual abuse survivors can have difficulty with the idea of non-sexual touch, but it does exist, and we are seeing the mental health impacts for some people who aren’t getting any touch.
See also the lack of friendships as adults. - Make a Friend, Be a Friend
Other news items:
Healing from Within: Empowering Steps on the Journey to Overcoming Depression
From Panic to Peace: Practical Techniques for Coping with Trauma-Related Panic Attacks
End the Silence: Ask for Help with Mental Health with Thom Singer - I wasn’t necessarily expecting to see a career podcast episode on mental health, but here we are.
Goodbye, Perfect: How to Stop Pleasing, Proving, and Pushing for Others… and Live For Yourself
From the Archives
It’s Important to Have the Uncomfortable Conversation – Blake Lively Talking about CSAM
Watch this speech by Blake Lively. Notice how, even as a professional who is in front of people all of the time, she’s struggling with her words, she’s fidgeting with her ring and with what to do with her hands, she is feeling every second of being in front of that crowd and delivering this message. I don’t want to pick on her either, in fact, I have nothing but praise for her. Because that had to be hard. That looked like a struggle. She had to be emotionally exhausted after doing that.
But she did it anyway, because it matters. It’s important. Bravo.
Quick Thought Number 1 – Scars
Physical scars are a sign that a person has overcome some difficulty. Mental and emotional scars aren’t visible in the same way, but the strength and resiliency are there just as much.
The truth is, we all have flaws, we all make mistakes, and we are all self-centered to one degree or another. Stop worrying about, or apologizing for, your own self-defined shortcomings, because chances are you’re only bringing attention to something that no one noticed, and didn’t care all that much about anyway.
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.