Meet Michele, she’s still mourning her dad’s loss, 20 years later. She speaks on the rawness of the array of emotions she deals with on the daily. As a social worker, you can see how her professional and personal lives overlap as she shares her experience.
Read MoreHow do we define trauma? It’s a mutual understanding that trauma involves a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. But the embodiment of trauma and its specific impact can vary significantly from person to person. For Jenna, trauma comes in many forms.
abuse. alcoholic households. grief. substance addiction. loss. rape.
Reading all of those traumatic events outlaid in a sort of laundry list does not allow for the complexity of it all to sink in. Re-read this list and realize that all of this happened to one person.
Read MoreSelf-hate can come in many forms and in varying severities. For Melissa, this hate was severe enough to trigger harm at her own hands.
“I cut myself for the first time when I was 11,” Melissa shared. She struggled to see the beauty within herself and to find enough self-love to bury the pain – even if it was just a little bit. She always found curves on women to be beautiful, yet when she looked in the mirror and saw her beautiful curves, she felt disgust. Why, she wondered, were curves beautiful unless they were reflecting back at her?
Read More“What a cowardly thing to do.” “How selfish of them” “What about the kids?” “How could they do something like this to their loved ones?” “But, they were always so happy.” “Why didn’t they ask for help?” Do these “innocent” phrases sound familiar to you? Surely, you’ve heard at least one of these statements from at least one participant in every conversation you’ve had about suicide. Maybe you, yourself have even uttered these normalized expressions of grievances. Am I right? Now – if you’ve said these things, or anything having a similar meaning when discussing someone who’s committed suicide, before you feel attacked or defensive, please listen…
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