ashley yates

It's hard to know how to seek help when your struggles are never recognized, when others never see you as capable of being harmed.

and trusting your own experience is a huge component to mental health. that's why they erase Blk stories, our pain, mock our struggles.

I'm making this point because so many people fail to believe their experience because it's not validated by power or mass society.

Yet I've had racist military men threaten to kill me for talking about my PTSD, claiming ownership over something they'd never experience.

They used weapons outlawed in intl warfare on us daily for months in Ferguson. We weren't trained for warfare but that didn't matter.

There's occasional acknowledgment of survivors of natural disasters or horrible crimes of inhumanity, but even that is rare and superficial.

I was so frustrated when I first started trying to understand my PTSD. So much of the info is written solely to address military soldiers.

Also, trust your experience. If I listened to the government, I'd never believe I had PTSD, even though they hand delivered it to me.

....I'm harping a bit bc Black folks can be especially disconnected from nature. That's not accidental. Nature is healing. Access it.

for us skeptical/logical folk, this isn't hippy talk: we are creatures that breathe oxygen made by plants - we can't be above nature.

we're part of this Earth as much as capitalists would like us to forget. put your hands in dirt, kick off your shoes on grass, face the sun.

if it's not possible to interact with people, you can commune with nature - science backs it: time in nature is proven to reduce depression.

(*sidenote with a head scratch* I still don't understand how folks fail that community can't happen online as tho ppl aren't typing...)

companion animals are a thing. if you have internet access you can absolutely build community, don't listen to naysayers that belittle.

I'm not trying to deny anyone experience: some folks are genuinely out here on their own and that's real. But community is what you make it

Depression is a monster you don't have to fight alone. PTSD is a manmade demon it takes community to survive.

Sharing small victories just in case someone needs to know they aren't alone. One minute at a time.