HW-4

HW-4

In her TedTalk How Telling Our Silenced Stories Can Change the World, Anne Hallward, MD, claims that it is the very things that we feel most ashamed by and judged for that can be the things that bring us together. From Hallward’s experience being a psychiatrist, she sees that shame is the root of depression, addiction, and suicide. Hallward claims that shame is the reason people feel so unaccepted. Whether it is sexuality, racism, mental illness, or past mistakes, people decide to not talk about it to hide, or even cover, their True Selves. Hallward pushes the idea that by staying quiet, we aid the development of stigmas: “the things we don’t talk about actually begin to get associated with shame. They begin to make us feel as if we are bad.” In other words, listening to and telling stories that are uncomfortable to talk about can actually be unifying because it makes us feel less alone. The benefits of speaking out are imperative to society, and in Hallward’s words speaking out “begins to change the culture. One story is like someone opening that door and then other people’s voices can come through that door and it becomes safer and safer for more people to live in the open.” This means that speaking out eventually can bring change, and that change can help more and more people feel comfortable, not ashamed, with who they truly are. By sharing our own scary stories, it can help others begin to share theirs until there is nothing people need to hide anymore. Conversation drives acceptance.

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