UnitedHealth Group is offering free mental health services to anyone in the country who was emotionally affected by the shooting at Pulse in Orlando – even if you don’t have health insurance.
Optum will operate a 24/7 helpline, and users can speak to a trained mental health professional for as long as they need. Individuals can call toll-free at 866-342-6892. The company is also providing access to their benefits site, which contains mental health information like professional tips on how to manage anxiety.
“The helpline can be an easy, accessible way for people to reach out,” William Bonfield, chief medical officer of OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions, told The Huffington Post. “It can provide support, an opportunity to talk and help a person decide if mental health treatment may be helpful.”
Please please please take advantage of this if you need it! Mental healthcare is so important but can be so freaking expensive, and processing Pulse might take a lot out of you. That’s okay – help is out there. And if you’re looking for someone LGBTQ-specific to talk to, the Trevor Project and Trans Lifeline are available for you too.
There’s also SAMHSA’s Disaster Distress Helpline! The Disaster Distress Helpline is a national hotline dedicated to providing year-round immediate crisis counseling for people who are experiencing emotional distress related to any natural or human-caused disaster.
This toll-free, multilingual, and confidential crisis support service is available to all residents in the United States and its territories. Stress, anxiety, and other depression-like symptoms are common reactions after a disaster. Call 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746 to connect with a trained crisis counselor.
Kristen Bell is one of the most recent stars to push past stigma and declare her depression and anxiety worth talking about.
And for that, I am thrilled.
It means that once again, there is another person, who seems so ‘normal,’ finally showcasing that, HELLO THERE, this is a real thing. And it knows no boundaries.
As a person who has had mental health issues for quite some time, diagnosed or not, I can basically agree 100% with this. And I wish, I wish, with all my might, that between her efforts and mine, and the efforts of all those other anxious or depressed souls out there, we can finally feel alive.
I want the anxious Plain Janes with no ‘big’ accomplishments to stand up with me, and say ‘I’m still here despite it all.’
I want the hard-working and depressed people to stand up with us, and declare ‘This isn’t shameful.’
I want my bipolar friends who fight internal demons to rally and shout ‘We’re people, too.’
I want my schizophrenic sisters and brothers to get together and yell from the rooftops that ‘We’re MORE than medication.’
Because we are.
We are MORE than this. We are MORE than medication, therapy, and doctor’s visits.
If you know a person in your life with a mental illness (I guarantee you do,) I want you to challenge yourself. Don’t get overwhelmed, but spend some time with them. Get to know their demons, and what they fight with every day. The things that make them struggle. The thoughts they have against their own selves.
I know from personal experience that just going to a counsellor doesn’t cut it. I need time to process my feelings, work through them, and count my victories. Sometimes that means someone points them out for me. Sometimes that means someone has to tell me over a dozen times a day that I am special. That I am okay. That I am loved, wanted, insert-positive-adjective-here. Sometimes that means that I need to just tell someone, anyone, that despite it all, it’s hard to live. I feel lonely. I feel afraid. I feel weak.
I can’t even hold back the tears coming down my face anymore. I’m so scared. But I’m doing this anyway, like I’ve done for the past year or more. (When did I start this, again?)
I am done hiding. I don’t want to hide anymore. If you still need space, though, take it. I’ll be a sounding board for anyone who’s struggling, because I’ve been there. I might not know how your story is going, but I will be a post to lean on if you need me.
We’re in this together, no matter how alone we feel.
Some people survive and talk about it. Some people survive and go silent. Some people survive and create. Everyone deals with unimaginable pain in their own way, and everyone is entitled to that, without judgement. So the next time you look at someone’s life covetously, remember…you may not want to endure what they are enduring right now, at this moment, whilst they sit so quietly before you, looking like a calm ocean on a sunny day. Remember how vast the ocean’s boundaries are. Whilst somewhere the water is calm, in another place in the very same ocean, there is a colossal storm.
People Survive in Different Ways | Nikita Gill (via meanwhilepoetry)
Ok… so I have a soft spot for Logyn about the size of Australia… what can I say!!
And honestly, if you ship the babes, then @nanihoo is probably a blessing and she was courteous enough to let use her Sigyn design ;w; Thank you so so much!!!
I meant for shorter hair for loki… but it somehow… didn’t agree with me
What a fucking brilliant idea. Boost the fuck outta this!
WHERE IS THE KICKSTARTER?
This is so awesome like holy geeze. I’ve got tools and a lot of time. If anyone wants me to make one of these, get me the legos and I’ll make it for you. I’ll even engrave the tops so that people who CAN see can read it too. All you’d have to do is tilt the board.
Bonuses: easy to edit. And at the end of the day? You can still play with them like regular legos. It would be a fun challenge to build around the braille bricks too, because their shape is altered.
Holding the Bowl 