Are we sure that "Never Forget" is healthy?

Okay, "Never Again" is a reasonable idea -- let's all learn from history and make sure that people don't make racist assumptions about entire groups of people and oppress them. Of course, we don't actually DO that.

But "Never Forget"? Okay, if that means "have appropriate memorials to respect and honor the dead," sure, that's fine. But it appears to mean "constantly relive the horror of it" -- which seems to be cultural PTSD.

I'm really ready to forget. Remember that it happened, take lessons from it. But it's been fourteen years. Kids who weren't born yet are now in high school. It's time to forget.

On the stigma of addiction

There's a closed Facebook group for counselors on the crisis text line I volunteer for, and every week, we get a discussion question or two to share and talk about if we want. How do we maintain our own sanity while doing this? How do we maintain our non-judgementality when texting with people with whom we disagree?

And this week, one of the questions is, "What can we do to help people deal with the stigma of addiction?"( Read more... )