Full disclosure, this post is difficult for me to write.
This week, the internet lost one of the earliest voices in the “blogosphere.’ Heather Armstrong, who created and published for many years on Dooce.com, passed away.
I didn’t know Heather but knew who she was and what her work meant to the early days of blogging. I don’t know the circumstances surrounding her passing but know that mental health has to become a priority for everyone in the US.
We’ve lived long enough with the stigma of mental health and have lost far too many people who were struggling and felt like they couldn’t get out or find help.
Or they were so ashamed of their issues because they’d been told all their lives that they just needed to “cheer up” or “get over it” or “you need to pray about that” or whatever other nonsense some well-meaning soul spat in their face.
Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough, folks. They never have been. And the problems have been there all along, we just chose to ignore them for most of human history.
We all struggle. I struggle. Some days we win the battle against our inner demons. Some days we lose. Some days we reach a peace settlement.
Everyone’s battle is different. Mine revolves around soul-crushing anxiety and emotional/verbal abuse from childhood. I fight every day to get better and have added many tools to my tool chest in the past few years.
But some days, all that is not enough. And I need help.
If you need help, please reach out to someone. There are people who need you to stick around. There are people who want to help.
If you or someone you know is in a mental health crisis and you live in the United States, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. You can also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. For resources outside the United States, please click here.