Mental Health First Aid and Emotional CPR are the two most popular approaches to training laymen to support people in distress. Some say there are both pros and cons.(Patrick Hruby / Los Angeles Times)
By Laura Newberry and Jaclyn Cosgrove, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2023
A fact of life is that at some point, at many points, we all suffer. Every single one of us knows what it’s like to be completely overwhelmed by a situation, a feeling, the state of our minds or the messiness of our lives.
What we’ve come to name as mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression and even psychosis, are part of this vast spectrum of distress. These conditions are as human as living, loving and dying, especially in our present-day world where 10 things might stress our sweet little nervous systems at any given moment.
Yet even though we may be well-acquainted with such distress and have an innate desire to help others, we’re taught to fear strong emotions — which sets us up to also fear people in crisis. Our cultural default then is to turn away instead of toward.
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