Christa M - Disaster Minded (Page 4)

A Latin child with dark hair and a red shirt gazes at the camera with suspicion.

child-abuse

5 Things “Stranger Danger” Education Got Wrong, and 1 It Gets Right

How emphasizing “stranger danger” hamstrung a generation’s understanding of threats to child safety

White cutouts on a gray background contain black text with words like "Trauma," "Self-esteem," "Hopelessness," etc

child-abuse

How Generational Trauma Compounds Child and Intimate Partner Abuse

Learning to fit in and not make waves might have been considered a form of “practice” for adult womanhood. We paper over our needs, preferences, and sense of autonomy when we learn they’re antithetical to our survival.

A lone figure walks a gray wooden boardwalk nestled among brown marsh reeds on a cloudy day.

child-abuse

Why It’s More Critical Now Than Ever to Tell Our “Not That Bad” Abuse Stories

Knowing what it looks, sounds, acts, and feels like before it becomes criminal can help us heal — and know what to look for. Our future may depend on it.

A brown pigeon stands on pavement among gray pigeons, the only one in a shaft of light

community

Asking for Help When Help Feels Few and Far Between

At a time when I feel less fearful of healthy confrontation, others seem to fear it from me — a sign of a deeply dysfunctional society

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Asking for Help When You Can’t Pull Back Any Longer

Sharing from survival mode introduces power differentials that can feel difficult to get out from under, but which are, ultimately, temporary.

A white man's hands hold the hands of an elderly woman in a blue skirt, seated in a wheelchair

community

Need Help? Look for the Strings Attached (Before They Strangle You)

Receiving assistance shouldn’t stand on the back of your submission to authority

community

Do You Really Want People to “Just Ask for Help”?

When resources are scarce and getting scarcer, ‘help’ can be conflated with ‘power' — and people need community, not rescuers

community

How to Learn to Trust, Even When You're Afraid

Because the risk of not trusting is greater than the risk of trusting the wrong people

A white man in the background reaches his hand toward a woman's in the foreground.

community

Reaching Out for Help When Everything Tells You to Pull Back

Why should I ask? Why should anyone answer? I am coming to this first post still recovering from a pretty bad trigger. My son spoke to me in a way that called to mind many less fortunate interactions with men over the years. I felt criticized and judged as less

A black and white image of a white human face mask overlaid on a dark splatter on a wall.

adhd

Abusers Hide Behind the Veneer of Respectability

So that you will trust them and provide plausible deniability when they’re found out

A young woman in a black dress and hat sits on grass in front of flowering shrubs, holding and smelling a sunflower

adhd

Confessions of a Former Manic Pixie Pick-Me

How my survival response to rejection pitted me against other women

A person with medium length wavy brown hair and a short sleeve white shirt leans on a natural wood window frame

adhd

How Undiagnosed ADHD Made Me Vulnerable to Predatory Grooming

Or, how intersectional feminism is crucial to child protection