This week’s focus: Memorial Day
I am honored to have my Twitter feed included in this list of 50 Best Twitter Feeds for Psychology Majors! Go check out the other 49, broken out into these categories: News; Organizations; Patients; and Professionals.
Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.
Please Share My Stuff! You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)
@healthyplace “You gain strength, courage and confidence
by every experience in which you really stop
to look fear in the face.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Some Tweets to Ponder
@LillyAnn “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” ~ Leo Tolstoy
@healthyplace “Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.” ~ J.K. Rowling
@WisdomalaCarte “Every thought is undermined, by all the history inside.” ~ Staind
@PsychCentral “Live out of your imagination, not your history.” ~ Stephen Covey
@StevenHandel “Once in awhile it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.” ~ Alan Keightley
@Mindful_Living “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Linked Tweets
This Memorial Day
@FightingPTSD How to Help a Suicidal Person (via @sheelaraja)
SEO: Written by veterans and military family members, this entire website is a good resource for PTSD and TBI information and support. Be sure to check the separate support links and blogroll links in the right column. And if someone you know is expressing suicidal thouhts, this post provides good pointers on how to help them, with questions to ask them, lists of symptoms, and “do” and “don’t do” lists to guide you.
But always know the crisis numbers, and point the person to them. If you, or anyone you know, are ever thinking about suicide and feel unsafe:
- Call 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255). The hotline is available 24 hours a day. En Español 1-888-628-9454
- Veterans can also chat live online with a crisis counselor to get help at any time of day or night. Go to Veterans Crisis Line or call 1-800-273-8255 and veterans Press 1.
@PTSDdotOrg Veterans Face Ruin Awaiting Benefits as Wounded Swamp VA
[SEO: This is just shameful. Where is the collective outrage across this country that our veterans — and their families — are being treated with such disregard? “The number of disability cases filed with the Veterans department jumped 48% over the past four years to 1.3 million in 2011. … “
“About 905,000 claims are pending at the department, 65% of them are taking longer than the agency’s 125-day target for dealing with them, according to tallies released this week. Disputes can draw out that process: A federal court ruling in May 2011 said it takes an average of more than four years for veterans to receive a final decision. Many have died waiting.”
@SuePeaseBanitt Why would we stigmatize our veterans who come home with PTSD, or traumatic brain injury, or depression? (via @TIME)
[SEO: In “Honor, Stigma … and PTSD”, Dr. Frank M. Ochberg says, “There are a few dozen of us who are considered the pioneers of the modern era of traumatic-stress studies, and most of us are worried – deeply worried — on behalf of the current generation of veterans with invisible wounds. We thought that by now there would be access to care whenever needed. We thought that by now there would be clear understanding that PTSD is a wound, not a weakness. We thought that a veteran who served honorably and received a compensable medical diagnosis for PTSD due to his or her service on the field of battle, would receive a medal for sacrifice.”
“But instead of honor, there is stigma. And this stigma must stop.”]
@IAVAPressRoom Of Memorial Days, and Sons and Daughters
[SEO: A veteran of two Iraq tours, and now an advocate for veterans’ issues dealing with addiction and PTSD, ponders what he will tell his 3.5 year old daughter about Memorial Day.
“Before I got myself sober, Memorial Day was always a day of drunken mourning; a day to wallow in guilt and anguish for surviving when others did not. It was a day of morbid reflection, the anticipation of which haunted me for weeks ahead of time. I was wholly consumed by my twisted thoughts and emotions. I avoided interaction altogether, and generally forced myself to watch war movies because somehow I felt obligated to relive the sense of combat, as if to pay homage to my fallen comrades.” …
“For far too long I hijacked Memorial Day and made it about me. But Memorial Day isn’t about me. It’s about remembering and honoring those who never made it home. … So this year I will teach my daughter about Memorial Day by doing, not lamenting. Perhaps we will plant a flag at the grave site of a fallen warrior, or perhaps we will attend a parade or a speech. Perhaps I will invite my close group of friends, all fellow combat veterans, to share the day with my family and me.”
Insight into Dissociative Identity Disorder (thanks to @CarolynSpring!)
@CarolynSpring What is it like to be me? I am DID [dissociative identity disorder]
[SEO: Written in a kind of stream of consciousness by someone with personal experience, this post gives great insight into what it’s like — and what it feels like — to have dissociative identity disorder. If it seems odd, or jumbled … welcome to my world, and many other people’s. CAUTION: May trigger.]
@CarolynSpring 20 helpful things my therapists said — reflections on psychotherapy by client with DID [dissociative identity disorder]
[SEO: This post is valuable for any child abuse survivor who is working through issues in therapy. There are so many trust and transference issues that might be crystallized into seemingly small and sometimes innocuous things said by a therapist. Therapists don’t know your entire “you”, so hopefully will be eager to learn how you attach meaning to what they say. In the first example given the therapist said, “I like pineapple”. This became a major “aha” for the client, in that she realized that she doesn’t know what “normal” is. These kinds of admissions also make the therapist more “real” and human.
The entire post is nuanced, insightful, and fascinating — and should be equally fascinating to therapists!]
The Rest of the Best
@healthyplace PTSD Help: PTSD Support Groups Can Help PTSD Recovery
[SEO: A great resource post, with numerous links to help you find a PTSD support group, either online or offline.]
@LillyAnn The Top 10 Big Fat Lies That Might Be Crippling YOU
[SEO: Too often, we learned growing up that denial and self-deception are easier than confronting reality. Sometimes it’s also a matter of sheer survival. This post asks: is it better to know or not know? I’ve always held in my life, and my therapy, that it’s better to know — which, admittedly, often comes with a cost.
Which of the 10 big lies described in this post belong to you? Each “lie” discussed includes how we use it, what the truth of it is, and action steps to get out of “not knowing” and into “knowing”. Excellent!]
@natasha_tracy Safety Warnings for St. Johns wort
[SEO: There are over the counter supplements that can impact your prescription drugs’ effectiveness. You should always inform your prescribing doctor as to what else you are taking. Beyond that, this post focuses on St. John’s Wort as a danger to people diagnosed with bipolar. “St. John’s wort is 100% contraindicated in cases of bipolar depression because it can cause mania or hypomania. I repeat, do not take St. John’s wort if you have bipolar depression. Clear? OK then.” Lots to think about here.]
@patriciasinglet Note to Society: Don’t Ever Ask That Stupid Question, “Why Don’t Children Tell Anyone They Are Being Sexually Abused?”
[SEO: This is a story of six sisters who were repeatedly abused by both of their parents over decades. They did tell. Repeatedly. They were failed by social workers, by clergy, by school teachers. And no, sadly, it’s not that unusual. Read this post, and know that this is the reality of many children, every day, even as you read this.]
