This week licensed therapist Kati Morton talks about why it can be hard to tell our therapist about a sexual assault, and why the R-word can be so difficult to talk about. She then discusses why it seems to be harder to maintain our mental health post-COVID, how to work through perpetual grief, and how to overcome intense bullying. Finally, she explains how EMDR works, and why we can hold onto our suicidal thoughts and plans. Audience questions from Ask Kati Anything, your mental health podcast episode 230:1. I was wondering why I can’t seem to talk to my therapist about being raped?? Backstory: I was raped twice by a family friend and both times were more than 10+ years ago so I should just be over it by now. I’ve been seeing a therapist for over a year now. I really do like her and I feel comfortable and really connected to her. I can count on one hand the few people who know about both assaults, but I’ve never been able to share with anyone intimate details of it besides the few details that my therapist knows about. However, every time the conversation...2. Is it just me, or is it so much harder to maintain good mental health as compared to pre-COVID times. So much changed during that time and so many of us lost important social connections. I hope this doesn’t sound lame, but… what is your advice for starting over?3. How do we work through perpetual grief? I feel a lot of grief over things that I didn't get to do or experience due to mental health issues over the years. Recognizing that I can't turn back time, and some of the things I missed I will never be able to do or that it will not be the same experience had it happened at the appropriate time. This caused me to have even more grief as I'm going through life knowing I'm not...4. I don’t have any hopes in life because I keep getting bullied and bullied and bullied ever since I was 10 and now I’m 13 I’m in seventh grade now and I’m scared to actually go to school because I keep getting bullied. I don’t tell my parents...5. Can you possibly explain the science behind EMDR in human terms? ;). It is completely fascinating to me how it works, because it does! My mind has started one place and ended up where I never would have expected to. I have had flashes of odd images come into my mind as well that I haven’t mentioned because they are just weird or embarrassing. 6. Even when I was doing a little bit better and wasn’t having too many suicidal thoughts, I’ve always had a plan in place in my head. This seems really messed up to me and now this method isn’t possible to me it feels stressful; like I need an answer again. I don’t understand why it feels necessary to have a definite answer to this again. Or why it was a constant presence in the first place. I’ve had rather complicated mental health issues for years and had lots of treatments and felt pretty hopeless for a long time. I’m guessing this has something to do with it but it just doesn’t sit right with me that it always feels needed in the background.

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