Child Abuse and Mental Health Survivors Information - Issue #50
Based on one of the links below, and an upcoming trip, I'm planning on ignoring my social anxiety and reaching out to people I should have reached out to long ago. I'm working hard at reminding myself that people appreciate it when someone reaches out much more than we anticipate.
So who should you reach out to?
New From the Blogs
Sharing - Rest is a Right, Not a Reward — www.childabusesurvivor.net Look, the empty cup analogy is a good one for people who feel the need to put aside their own care to take care of others, but the truth of the matter is that is only part of the equation. We need rest, we need food, and we need self-care because we need those things. There doesn't need to be another reason, and we sure don't need to "earn" them.
Sharing - Thinking About Reaching Out to Someone? Science Says Do It — www.childabusesurvivor.net You should read the whole thing. There's more. Not just about how much other people appreciate it when we reach out but how much having a conversation with a stranger makes us happy, and a host of other things that appear to make us much happier than we anticipate. We're not very good at knowing what makes us happy. Perhaps more importantly, we're not very good at recognizing the mental health benefits of being connected in small ways to other people. Those little connections can make a huge difference.
Child Abuse Survivor on Instagram: "What do you want? — www.instagram.com
Child Abuse Survivor shared a post on Instagram: "What do you want? - Not what will help my career, or what will make my friends think well of me, but what life do I want, and who do I want in it? There is no more important thing for us to know, but also maybe nothing more easy to ignore in the midst of the noise of our current world.
Shared From Elsewhere
Stamping out the stigma: throwaway sayings and why they’re so damaging to mental health — happiful.com Understanding the impact of our words, and how they can perpetuate stigma
Some Thoughts Regarding Stigma: The Often Silent Obstacle to Mental Health and Substance Care Among African Americans - Behavioral Health News — www.behavioralhealthnews.org Despite stigma reduction efforts, stigma continues to be present when behavioral health care is provided to people of color, especially African Americans.
It's OK to Have Complicated Feelings About an Abusive Parent Dying — themighty.com B.L. Acker explores the range of complicated feelings after an abusive parent dies.
Feeling Disconnected From Oneself and Others After Trauma | Psychology Today — www.psychologytoday.com Recognizing alienation after trauma.
Hope Starts With Us: NAMI’s New Podcast | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI’s national office’s first-ever podcast will focus on one of NAMI’s essential values — hope. It is also a call to action and unity…hope starts with all of us, together — sharing our stories, offering practical advice, breaking the stigma.
We Can All Prevent Suicide : Lifeline — 988lifeline.org Understanding the issues concerning suicide and mental health is an important way to take part in suicide prevention, help others in crisis, and change the conversation around suicide.
From the Archives
Even LinkedIn has Mental Health Creators Worth Following — www.childabusesurvivor.net I've often tried to share lists of social media accounts, podcasts, blogs, etc. related to abuse and mental health. I think this is the first time I'm sharing such a list of LinkedIn creators. Nevertheless, here we have it.
Link - 3 Reasons Why Family Ignores Abuse — www.childabusesurvivor.net I thought the reasons laid out in this article were interesting, not exhaustive by any means but an interesting way of looking at what happens in families when abuse is present. I do feel like all of them boiled down to this: At the time I was devastated by her response and I took it...
Overcoming Childhood and the Stories We Tell Ourselves — www.childabusesurvivor.net I caught an interesting, short podcast episode on this topic recently. The host, Dave Fraser is joined by Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb to discuss the question of whether we can overcome our childhoods. It's an interesting episode, and I think many of you might learn a thing or two about how the stories we've been told about ourselves in childhood can be rewritten and how a good therapist might assist in that. You can get the links and notes from the show here: