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Tag: communication
Everything You Need to Know About Boundaries
The topic of boundaries comes up quite a lot during discussions about trauma and mental health but even therapists can skimp on the details of how to actually formulate, set, and enforce boundaries! It took me many years to learn that a boundary is not a tool to control the actions of others or to prevent harm from ever reaching me. It is an agreement that I make with myself about how I expect to …Read More
Hiding Behind “Good Intentions”: Why Good Intent Does Not Erase Oppressive Impact
CN: general discussion of oppressive social dynamics, brief discussion of misgendering We’re all familiar with the people who tell you outright that they hold hateful opinions towards oppressed groups. But for every blatantly malicious bigot, there are 10 people who “meant well” or “didn’t mean it like that” or “had good intentions” when they said or did something that actually had a harmful effect on a member of an oppressed group. You have probably been …Read More
Hanging Out with Your Autistic Friend: A Guide to Social Inclusivity
CN: extensive description of the experience of autism including ableist treatment, triggers, and sensory overload. Mention of ableist term. Autism advocacy as a branch of activism is something I’ve learned a huge amount about just in the last few years, and one of the repeating problems the community faces has been how any “advice” on interacting with autistic people that’s published in large scale media sources, is exclusively written by neurotypical or allistic (the opposite …Read More
The Problem with Slurs
CN: In-depth discussion of the usage and purpose of slurs and the common defenses for using slurs; discussion of racism, sexism, anti-gay bias, and classism. Warning: There will be a couple of slurs written out in full in this article. They are written this way to maintain clarity in a purely educational piece. I made a point to limit how many slurs I used and to avoid using any slurs that would be particularly egregious …Read More
How to Lend a Hand in a Mental Health Crisis Part 5: Seeking Solutions
CN: mental health crisis’, mental health management; brief mention of a variety of mental health based issues and abuse. The fifth and final installment of Lucy Merriman’s guide to offering mental health support when you yourself are not a trained mental health worker, is possibly the most universally helpful of all the parts. It includes some extremely useful problem solving techniques, basic guidelines to finding the info you need to help you move forward, and …Read More
How to Lend a Hand in a Mental Health Crisis Part 4: Educate, Normalize, & Comfort
This week’s guest post is Part 4 in a five-part series that looks at how to fill the gaps in our current mental health care system on an individual basis. Lucy Merriman has been guiding us through information about mental health crisis hotlines, basic skills needed to offer support to a person in crisis, and in-depth information about how to guide someone to the other side of whatever they are going through. These posts contain …Read More
How to Lend a Hand in a Mental Health Crisis Part 3: The Process of Processing
This week’s guest post is Part 3 in a five-part series that looks at how to fill the gaps in our current mental health care system on an individual basis. It includes a lot of really valuable information about how to help someone work through an emotionally upsetting time. Whether your friend is in a full-blown crisis, or they’re just having a bad day, these tools are excellent for anyone who wants to be a …Read More