Slips of Mental Health | #metoo
“Greek term for depression, melancholia, means “black bile””
With my personal connection to the “Me Too” movement and all the other women and men in my life who have their own experiences with sexual assault, this was an important project for me to incorporate into my practice. As I continually keep hearing different stories about sexual abuse the more it gets frustrating that it is normalized so much. Trauma has a huge effect on an individual’s mental health and ability to maintain healthy relationships. In efforts to help heal more people, more awareness is necessary. The first thing I would like to address is that if someone does not know the history of their trauma then, “They are likely to be labeled as crazy or punished as criminals rather than helped to integrate their past.” (Kolk, pg. 184, 2014) This is an incredibly discouraging thought. With this stigma it ostracizes and dehumanizes the trauma inflicted, which could further lead a person to create more negative coping habits. This will consequently make it harder to backtrack and heal depending on how long the habit has been present. This doesn’t even cover the habit of negative self-talk. It’s a massive web of both mental and physical habits cannot be an easy “fix”. I could easily go on about this topic, but I encourage you to dig deeper on your own.