@naomicfisher Yes! Yes! Yes!
We are living in cultures that are pathologizing natural and reasonable responses to environments and systems that were/are built from a position that was and is IN trauma.
Should we listen to distressed children? One of the comments levelled at me over the last few days is that the views of the children I see don’t count, because they have mental health problems and therefore by definition their emotional reactions are excessive. My job, goes the argument, is to help them see that they are engaging in thinking errors and therefore to reduce their anxiety so they can return to school and everything can carry on as before.
This is exactly the reason why I am speaking up. I’m concerned that by defining the distress of young people as a mental health problem, we make the assumption that they are irrational. We locate the problem in them. We assume that they are wrong to feel the way they do. No matter how developmentally inappropriate the requirements of a school might be. No matter how controlling a school environment is. No matter how many more tests are introduced. The child’s reactions have been effectively neutralised, turned into something which must be treated. That’s what I have been asked to do as a psychologist. Fix the child, so they return to school without complaining and stop waking up at night worrying or being disruptive.
It doesn’t work like that. Mental health doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If you’re in an environment which causes you serious ongoing stress and you have no power to change that or ability to leave, then you are going to feel anxious or depressed. Many adults experience this in unhealthy work environments. Psychology can’t and shouldn’t try to make natural emotional responses go away. Our emotions are important. Distress doesn’t always mean there’s something wrong with a person. It can mean that the environment isn’t working for them, and something needs to change.
We treat children’s distress as the problem, and I’m saying what if in fact they are pointing out a problem - and the rest of us aren’t listening?
(Illustration by @_MissingTheMark)
Artist Pope.L, famous for his crawling performances, dies aged 68 | Art | The Guardian sad news… The Art World did not get behind him soon enough. He was a cult hero. Sad he has died just at the point people were beginning to take his work on board. https://t.co/vz51IViGAe
✨🎄🌟CHRISTMAS #GIVEAWAY🌟🎄✨
For day 5 of our 12 days of Christmas, we're giving away a hardback and audio copy of Skrimsli by Nicola Davies, with illustrations by Jackie Morris
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✨🎄🌟CHRISTMAS #GIVEAWAY🌟🎄✨
For day 4 of our 12 days of Christmas, we're giving away a copy of Michael the Amazing Mind-Reading Sausage Dog by @cowfishdreams and @timbudgen
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Dear @SallyAnn1066 as my MP I urge you to choose compassion over cruelty today
The Illegal Migration Bill is inhumane and should be scrapped entirely
At the very least please support an amendment that means the UK will NOT have to breach international law
#StopTheBill
Shocking, and simultaneously if you are not totally asleep not shocking at all...
Psychiatry & Big Pharma: Exposed - Dr James Davies, PhD https://t.co/sayiftKC98 via @YouTube