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.)
@MindfulBoston “Life is made out of moments.
How many of your moments are spent
planning for other moments
rather than being fully lived?”
Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder
@karenkmmonroy “Illusions of the world lead to illusions of self, which lead to illusions of the world…. Know self, dissipate the illusions.”
@soulseedz “When you numb the dark, you also numb the light. As you take the edge off pain, you also take the edge off joy.”
@ilawton “Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.” ~ Mark Twain
@Tamavista “I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.” ~ Maya Angelou
@AlwaysWellWithn “vulnerability + personal power = authenticity”
@dailysquotes “It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.” ~ Margaret Bonnano
Linked Tweets
@mdvagov At VA, every week is Suicide Prevention Week. Vets and families can call 1-800-273-8255 and press 1, 24/7, 365 days a year.
[SEO: If you are a vet who is having trouble coping, or if you know one, the VA has resources to help you. As the linked article says, “You have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning.”]
@healingtrauma 50 Best Blogs on Bullying
[SEO: Arranged in the following categories: General Blogs on Bullying; Workplace Bullying; Reporting Bullying; Professional Blogs on Bullying; and Forums on Bullying.]
@HealthyPlace Importance of Psychiatric Crisis Planning. New Mental Health for the Digital Generation vlog (post and video)
[SEO: Excellent resource. “A few years ago, I was hospitalized and I don’t feel that I was given the proper care by the hospital and I was certainly not in any state to take care of myself. If I had a crisis plan in place, my family could have worked with my doctor to make sure that I received the proper treatment and care at the hospital and that I had a plan in place for after I was discharged.”
“Here are the links to a sample crisis plan (PDF) and a blank crisis plan (PDF) for you to fill out. Be sure to fill it out when you are doing well and can think clearly. Give a copy of your plan to everyone in your support network – like your close family and friends, your psychiatrist and your therapist.” Watch the video for more details of what to include in your crisis plan.]
@thereseborchard 21 Ways to Overcome Disappointment
[SEO: “Disappointments leave us with the unpleasant task of squashing, crushing, and pinching lemons to extract any and all juice.” A helpful, albeit sometimes snarky, look at ways to deal with disappointment. (Sometimes snark qualifies as a coping mechanism! ;)]
@Mindful_Living 5 Keys to Preparing for Fall and Winter Blues
[SEO: “When it comes to seasonal affective disorder (SAD) or just being negatively affected by less light or shorter days, this is a great opportunity to get your ducks in a row to stave off a depressive slide.” Post discusses: mindfulness training; exercise; light therapy; gratitude list; and connect. “This is about nurturing your life, it’s about creating resiliency and most of all about getting in touch with what really matters.”]
@SarahEOlson2009 Who Do You Let In? Defining Your Boundaries And Staying Safe But Not Isolated
[SEO: Using the metaphor of keys, post discusses how boundaries are defined, and why it’s good to periodically assess who has the keys to your inside self — or doesn’t — and why. Including yourself. “Are there perhaps places no-one holds the keys to? Places you maybe even keep locked away from yourself? Places that seem too dark, too cold, too overwhelming to enter, so you’ve locked them up, boarded them up and maybe even been tempted to throw the keys away? What might it take to make those spaces feel safe enough for you?”]
@NAMIMass Why Don’t Psychiatrists Like To Show Patients Their Notes?
[SEO: “Why don’t psychiatrists like to show patients their notes? Are they really going to ‘harm’ the patient?” Contains a bullet list of possible reasons why a psychiatrist may not wish to share notes with a patient. See also the comments by several patients about their attempts to obtain their doctor’s notes, and others who state why they don’t want or need to see their doctor’s notes.]
@HealthyPlace Post-Abuse Issues With Children
[SEO: Written by a woman who left her abusive spouse, she writes with aching honesty of how being in an abusive relationship impacts her children, even nearly two years away from it. It’s a cliche that kids are resilient; in fact, they also tend to take in abusive damage quite deeply.
Ignoring it does not make it go away, it can just make children feel more alone. “They’ve both described their childhood as incredibly lonely. That breaks my heart because I was a stay-at-home mom. I was with them every day, every minute. Yet they were lonely because I was unable to truly connect with them. The words ‘I love you’ become meaningless when they’re not backed by actions. My children grew up feeling alone and anxious with no one to go to for help.”]
@psychcentral Finding Meaning to Cope with Life Struggles
[SEO: “When we go through a demanding and trying time, it can be tough to cope and stay self-assured. Going through emotionally demanding experiences like loss and trauma often leads to negative emotions such as grief, anger, fear and shame. It can be difficult to overcome this negativity and work through the pain when there is no apparent reason for what occurred. If we don’t work to heal and reproach our negative perspective, it becomes very difficult to move beyond the anger and grief that engulfs our day to day life.” …
“Meaning comes from moving beyond ourselves and connecting with something bigger and more profound than our immediate reality. When we experience loss or trauma we can use this sense of purpose to piece our life back together, and use the emotional energy to make a positive impact.”
@tlomauro The Upside of a Panic Attack
[SEO: “New research aims to debunk another myth: Panic attacks occur completely out of the blue. Though those who panic don’t realize it, their attacks are in fact foreshadowed by minute physiological signals, according to a study led by Southern Methodist University’s Alicia Meuret in the journal Biological Psychiatry. ‘The hour before panic onset was marked by subtle but significant waves of changes in patient’s breathing and cardiac activity, not just the moment of onset of the attack or even during the attack,’ she says.” See also the next post below about anxiety from the patient’s point of view.]
@HealthyPlace Anxiety. Does It Have to Be Like This?
[SEO: “Anxiety is not relieved by the sublime because it is preoccupation, so reassurance sounds like fantasy, misdirection. It is that pre-condition which needs treating if anxiety is to be overcome. It is not enough to comfort, or explain. Anxiety must be met with ingenuity. Whether we consider ourselves creative or not.”]
@goodthingz 27 Healthy Habits of Happiness
[SEO: I admit that I neglect posts on “happiness”. I often think the “happiness gurus” engage in a lot of magical thinking that’s entirely not relevant to my own life and situation. Although this post is labeled “happiness”, I like it because it fits neatly with a Theory of Anyway. These healthy habits may or may not make you happy, but they are good to cultivate anyway. The benefits may not be immediately apparent, but do it anyway. Increased awareness, empathy, compassion, accountability, and authenticity doesn’t have to equate to “happiness”, but they are all worthy goals. Why not just do it anyway?]
Enjoy!
