- addiction
- adolescents
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- art
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- children
- covid-19
- creativity
- crisis
- crisis intervention
- culture
- depression
- eating disorder
- fear
- grief
- holidays
- hope
- loneliness
- loss
- mental health
- mental wellnes
- mindfulness
- POC
- postpartum depression
- PTSD
- race
- racial trauma
- racism
- relationships
- seasonal depression
- self harm
- social justice
- st
- stress
- substance use
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- suicide prevention
- teens
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WISHING YOU PEACE THIS HOLIDAY SEASON
We know the holidays aren't always the happiest. And today, as wishes of joy fill the air, we want you to know that whatever you're feeling is valid and you are so very not alone. We want you to find peace and hope in the smallest moments, but we also know that this season can come with sadness and pain, especially as we close out a year of immeasurable loss.
We know the holidays aren't always the happiest. And today, as wishes of joy fill the air, we want you to know that whatever you're feeling is valid and you are so very not alone. We want you to find peace and hope in the smallest moments, but we also know that this season can come with sadness and pain, especially as we close out a year of immeasurable loss.
As we ring in a new year, socially distant from a world we once knew, it may be hard to find a reason to celebrate. And if you choose not to, that's ok too. But you are still here, and it can totally be enough to just celebrate you.
We've compiled some resources to hopefully make wherever you are on your journey a little bit easier.
Wishing you safety, peace, and a bit of hope this holiday season.
Office of Behavioral Health Keep Calm Line 1-866-310-7977
If you need assistance finding food, paying for housing bills, accessing free childcare, or other essential services, visit 211.org or dial 211 to speak to someone who can help.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-8255
Text HOME to 741741 and you’ll be connected to a trained Crisis Counselor. Crisis Text Line provides free, text-based support 24/7.
For any victims and survivors of domestic violence who need support, call 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-799-7233 for TTY, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 22522.
Call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.
Listen to the Along the Gravel Road Podcast as guests share about their own mental health journeys.
The Mental Health America In The Open podcast explores the holiday blues and ways to cope with stress and anxiety as the holidays ramp up and wrap up - especially with the changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought.
TWLOHA When the Holidays Are Hard written by Xander Bell
Mental Health during the Holidays by Mental Health First Aid USA
Maintaining Mental Health During the Holidays (And a Pandemic) by NAMI
Setting Healthy Holiday Boundaries During the Holiday Season by Where's the Line?
Enjoy the Holidays with More Mindfulness by the Child Mind Institute
Coping With Grief During the Holidays by the American Cancer Society
MY DISORDER THRIVES IN THESE LONELY MOMENTS
WRITTEN BY: BECCA AMES
we compare our pain as if there is only a certain amount in this world to be given. rank our suffering, use it to give or deny ourselves the permission to feel. there are people who are sick, dying, losing their jobs, people who never had them to begin with. people who are hungry. who are you to be experiencing anything but gratitude?
WRITTEN BY: BECCA AMES
we compare our pain as if there is only a certain amount in this world to be given. rank our suffering, use it to give or deny ourselves the permission to feel. there are people who are sick, dying, losing their jobs, people who never had them to begin with. people who are hungry. who are you to be experiencing anything but gratitude?
I am overwhelmed by my sadness, the strength to which my feelings can overtake me in a matter of seconds, dragging me to the depths of despair as I sit comfortably in an air-conditioned apartment with a fridge that is full and a fluffy little creature nestled at my toes. you are not worthy of sadness today, the voices say.
my disorder thrives in these lonely moments, feeding on the guilt and shame of asking for too much from a world that is - for all intents and purposes - tapped out. I berate myself for the messiness of my feelings, shave away the excess so I too can fit in the box of all that is ‘just right’.
I live in constant fear that the bigness of what is happening inside of me is wrong, that my taking of space will overwhelm the people I love and force them to disappear.
but there is something freeing in this quiet, a knowing emerging from its hiding place. I am confronted each day by a shadow that used to dance behind all that is life beyond this. I ran from its darkness, its silhouette stretching thin in my wake until disintegrating into nothing at all.
but now, the shadow stands just slightly taller than myself, cast from a light that is close by.
I am here, it seems to say, announcing my existence.
I am learning to be alone. and maybe it’s because I didn’t bring this upon myself that it feels lighter than it would in another time, a purposeful act of being alone that is not representative of an absence of love but perhaps even a surplus of it.
maybe I am not a mess. maybe I am just a person who feels deeply in a messy world. and maybe there are others who feel this way - completely and without hesitation, others who read what I write and feel the pressure release. others who feel the weight of this loneliness lifting.
maybe we’re not overreacting. maybe we’re not broken.
maybe we’re just paying attention.
LOSS BUT NOT LOST
What we want you to know about grief:
What we want you to know about grief:
We may look happy and the truth is, we probably are, but we're also incredibly sad. And we are learning how to live those things in tandem for now.
We have probably cried uncontrollable or just the briefest of tears not 24 hours ago.
We feel guilty all the time for going on with our lives without them.
Sometimes we feel everything all at once, and sometimes we try like hell to feel nothing.
We do want to hear from you, even if we seem distant.
We aren't going to do everything right, right now. We're going to make mistakes. And we're so sorry for that.
But we're trying, and that trying takes up a lot more energy these days.
So we're also just tired.
And we want you to understand that.
Even though it may seem like we're doing just fine on our own, we can't do this alone.
Sincerely, loss but not lost
LOSING SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS HARD.
Losing someone you love is hard. You sit at a table for a family gathering, for birthdays, holidays; and you all feel it. You realized that you’ve missed each other because life gets busy and that you love each other more deeply than you thought possible. You laugh because you enjoy each other’s company so much. But then you feel a pang of guilt for laughing instead of crying. You smile a little less. And look around and realize you’re not the only one.
Losing someone you love is hard. You sit at a table for a family gathering, for birthdays, holidays; and you all feel it. You realized that you’ve missed each other because life gets busy and that you love each other more deeply than you thought possible. You laugh because you enjoy each other’s company so much. But then you feel a pang of guilt for laughing instead of crying. You smile a little less. And look around and realize you’re not the only one.
And that’s when losing someone gets just a little bit easier. You feel everything more deeply, more permanently, that is if you try hard not to forget this feeling. You treasure the little moments with the people that you love. Every laugh. Every tear. You know, in that moment and for forever, you are so very not alone.