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It's all very well giving mh patients imaginary "safe places" we can retreat to in our heads when we feel anxious, but this should only ever be done once it's been established that our actual physical environments are safe.
I've seen *a lot* of mh professionals 1/
It's all very well giving mh patients imaginary "safe places" we can retreat to in our heads when we feel anxious, but this should only ever be done once it's been established that our actual physical environments are safe.
I've seen *a lot* of mh professionals 1/
over the years. I've been given *a lot* of advice and instruction on how to calm myself down when I feel anxious - but I've never once been asked if the reason I'm anxious is because I'm not actually physically safe. It's always been assumed that my anxiety is unfounded, that 2/
what I'm frightened of is imaginary. I've been told that checking the locks and bolting my door is a "safety behaviour" similar to wearing garlic to ward off vampires. A vampire has never broken through my door. People have though, lots of people, lots of times. I don't know 3/
if the automatic belief that anxiety is caused by an imaginary scenario is a mental health stigma issue ("they are mad, so everything they experience is irrational") or perhaps a class issue (if you've never lived on rough estates, where you have to keep your curtains closed 4/
to hide your possessions otherwise they will immediately be nicked, I guess that would be hard to imagine) - probably a bit of both. I grew up on estates as a child. Being broken into was common. As a teenager & young adult I lived rough. I've had hundreds of experiences of 5/
being woken to people smashing windows/doors to get in to the building, having tents slashed/set on fire/stamped on while I'm in them, being woken by being kicked/stamped on, waking to find people standing over me, being woken by strangers getting into bed with me, 6/
being woken by being sexually assaulted.. Once I got into uni I started living in student digs and the intrusions didn't stop. People let themselves into student houses/flats without permission all the time - landlords, estate agents, maintenance services etc. It's happened 7/
in 4 out of the 5 places I've rented as a student. Breaks ins are also *extremely* common. I've been under mh services for pretty much all of my adult life, which includes years of living rough/being in an abusive relationship/being in unsafe accomodation, and 8/
no-one has EVER asked me "why do you feel so anxious at night?" "Are you safe where you're living?" "Is there anything we can do to make you safer?"
Not everyone lives in a safe, private, detached house in a nice part of town. I'm tired of my lived reality being pathologised. 9/
Not everyone lives in a safe, private, detached house in a nice part of town. I'm tired of my lived reality being pathologised. 9/
Not only is it insulting and potentially dangerous to tell someone to "work on their breathing" and "go to their safe place" without asking if they are ACTUALLY SAFE, but it's also pointless, because you can't "breathe" danger away..
10/10
10/10
