Responsibility

Have you ever scrolled through social media & thought 'that person has clearly lost it' & then kept scrolling?

I saw a post this morning that made me question someone's mental state. But did I message them & check on them? Well, no of course not.... I don't have time to deal w/their crazy. Did I message their spouse & ask if they were ok? Well no, it's just really not my business.

Mental illness isn't a joke. It also isn't something to be ignored. So why don't we check on the metal health status of our friends? Why don't we say 'hey, you seem to be in a funk lately' to someone that's clearly not acting like themselves?!

Who's responsibility is mental illness? If your friends & family aren't willing to address your crazy, who's responsibility is it? The person who's obviously losing it? Yeah, because that's going to happen!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This. This. Is. Important.

This. This. This. This. This. This. This. 

http://jezebel.com/the-most-important-thing-teen-girls-should-do-but-dont-1563444100?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

I have had this very conversation so many times. I love this quote from the article: "If you're wondering why any of this matters, I'll tell you. Orgasms are good for you. And masturbation means no partner or drama required. Have a migraine? Masturbate. Feeling stuck creatively? Masturbate. Feeling blue? Masturbate. Can't sleep? Masturbate. Mired in stress? Low self-esteem? Sex drive in low gear? Chronic pain? Masturbation is good for what ails you" (Block 2014). 

Last semester, several female students and I had this EXACT conversation before Qualitative Theory. I left class, went home and talked to my daughters about masturbation. I even offered to put bullets in their stocking. The responses I got ranged from hands over their ears to "too far Mom, too far" (which is the standard response when I say something shocking to my daughters). 

We joke about boys masturbating on TV, movies and even in casual conversations with friends. My friend Jess and I have joked a lot about how she doesn't pick up her sons socks off the floor anymore after watching a Weeds episode. If we are all about equality, why are we not all about sexual equality? What is it about female masturbation that freaks us all out... both male and female? Our bodies are not gross. Masturbating is not gross. 

I sent the article to just about everyone I can think of... my best friends, my daughters, my more liberal friends with daughters and then I got the courage to share it on facebook. Crickets I tell  you, crickets. I share an article about anything else and people BLOW UP MY FEED. But masturbation... crickets. O_o WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY????? 

I'm not that different than you...

This morning, I was discussing with a friend the reasoning behind why I share what I do on facebook, knowing that it is going to make people dislike me or cause conflict (and if you know me, you know I HATEEEEE conflict). 

My answer? Because my posts are usually about educating people to things they may have not been aware of before. I mean, I wasn't aware 10 years ago. 

Guess what guys... I am not all that different than you are. I grew up in those same religiously conservative families as you. Hell, my parents had a poster of Ronald Reagan laminated & on the wall. I was also in church EVERY TIME THE DOORS OPENED. I truly believed all that I was indoctrinated into both politically and religiously. 

Here's the thing though... 

1. I didn't know I was in an abusive marriage or that my family had verbally abusive tendencies until I took an interpersonal communication course that enlightened me to how people really should speak to each other. 

2. I didn't realize the damage that could be done by using yelling as a communication technique, until I did research for a graduate class. I was in my 20's with two kids... 

3. I HONESTLY thought the people who used welfare came from generational users of the system... until I started to do research into who uses the system. 

4. I was pro-life, until I REALLY looked into abortion and who uses the services and why they use them. 

5. I was a good ole Southern Baptist, until I researched how the denomination came about (racism) and did a little reading of my own and realized how WRONG we are about what the Bible really says. 

You are always free to ignore my posts. You can dislike me for who I've become. I won't say that it doesn't bother me, because it does. I don't like knowing that some of you think I'm just an idiot liberal who has been manipulated by the education system. 

But here's the thing. That abortion post I posted this morning? Yeah... I had three people text me their stories and tell me that they agreed with my about education. Why did they text me? Because they didn't want to deal with the persecution of their family, peers and even jobs. O_o THIS. IS. A. PROBLEM. 

So I will continue to annoy you with my posts and you can continue to think I'm a liberal idiot. BUT... if one person reads something I've posted and it causes them to rethink their previous way of thinking... I feel that it's worth it.