This hour-long program is about asking for help: why it’s so hard to admit when we need something from another person, and the surprising effects that sharing our vulnerability can have on our mental health. The episode explores how shame and stigma can prevent us from asking for what we need, why we tend to underestimate the generosity of others, and how asking can make us feel seen in both welcome and uncomfortable ways. Finally, we address the complicated experience of wanting to help to someone who can’t or won’t ask for it. We combine compelling storytelling with practical expert guidance to give you the tools you need to start your own courageous conversations.
Tips & Strategies for Asking For Help
Discussion Guide (PDF)
Listen to Stories from the Episode
Resources
From Our Guests
- Transcript of Full Interview with M. Nora Bouchard (PDF)
- Mayday! Asking for Help in Times of Need
M. Nora Bouchard - Interview with Alice Barakagwira
Safe Space Radio 2016 - Five Years Later—Loss, Heartbreak, and the Opioid Epidemic
P. Lynn Ouellette—The Times Record
Further Reading & Listening
- How to Get the Help You Need
H. Grant—Harvard Business Review - 7 Effective Ways to Ask for Help—and Get It
A. Boyes—Psychology Today - How I Trained My Husband To Be a Dad
J. Piazza—New York Times
Veteran Homelessness & Mental Health
- A City Solves Veteran Homelessness
E. Snow—The Wall Street Journal - Should You Give Money to People on the Street? Homelessness Experts Weigh In.
J. Ewoldt—Minnesota Star Tribune - VA Officials, and the Nation, Battle an Unrelenting Tide of Veteran Suicides
J. Steinhauer—The New York Times
Adoption
- Most American Adoptees Can’t Access Their Birth Certificates. That Could Soon Change.
J. Gass-Poore—Mother Jones
Refugees & Asylum Seekers
- How Do You Create a Better Asylum Policy? We Asked the Asylum Seekers.
M. Peters—The Washington Post - U.S Asylum Process Fact Sheet
National Immigration Forum - Asylum in the United States
American Immigration Council
Opioid Addiction
- The Opioid Epidemic: A Crisis Years in the Making
M. Salam—The New York Times - Rejected By A.A.
K.J. Anderson & C.M. Kallestrup—The New Republic - There’s a Highly Successful Treatment for Opioid Addiction. But Stigma is Holding It Back.
G. Lopez—Vox
Medical Debt
- Medical Bankruptcy: Still Common Despite the Affordable Care Act
D. Himmelstein et al—American Journal of Public Health - Americans are Going Bankrupt from Getting Sick
O. Khazan—The Atlantic
Helpful Organizations
- National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
- National Alliance to End Homelessness
- University of Oregon’s Adoption History Project
- Adoptee Rights Law Center
- American Adoption Congress
- Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project
- Women’s Refugee Commission
- New Mainers Resource Center
- American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence
- Harm Reduction Coalition
- FAIR Health
- Health Care Cost Institute
