Category Archives: Abuse
When Speaking the Truth Changes the Dynamic: Reclaiming Agency After Harm
For a few years I felt helpless about something awful that had happened to me. An abuser had sexually assaulted me, and for a long time it felt like the story ended there: harm done, no meaningful response from any … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse
Tagged abuse, accountability, neglect, speaking, speaking up, truth, truth-telling, voice
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When the Boss Plays Mind Games: A Case Study in Blame, Power, and Gaslighting
About 15 years ago, I left one of only two jobs I ever had that offered a living wage and benefits. I didn’t choose to leave. My boss had a political agenda, and I became a target. I was the … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse
Tagged district supervisor, employment, Fairfax County VA, gaslighting, mind games, political favor, Supervisor, truth, verbal abuse, Virginia, work
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Victim Selection and the Structural Mechanics of Harm: Why Vulnerable People Are Chosen and Left Unprotected
Victimology examines patterns of harm and how systems respond to them. It shows that perpetrators rarely act randomly. They select targets who are vulnerable in ways that reduce risk to themselves and maximize the impact of the harm. Factors such … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse
Tagged accountability, Complaints, courts, harm, hospitals, justice, law, legal, Medicine, power dynamics, standard treatment, support, victim services, victimology
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Stuck on Red Alert: The Hidden Harm of Seeking Help
For most of the last seven years, I haven’t been able to feel the normal range of human emotions. Joy, peace, gratitude, awe, and beauty have been mostly absent. Most of the time, I can only think about these things. … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Healthcare
Tagged abuse, awe, emotions, healthcare, hypervigilance, joy, Medicine, peace, recovery, Red Alert, wonder
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Trauma and the Anti-Human System: Why Psychiatric ‘Care’ Fails
A pain specialist referred me to the Johns Hopkins Hospital Pain Treatment Program (PTP) because it is supposed to be one of the top hospitals in the country for pain. When you’re living inside a body that’s been pushed past … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Psychiatry
Tagged abuse, Hopkins, Johns Hopkins, lions, medications, pain, pain treatment, psych medications, psychiatric hospital, psychiatry
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Doubly Cursed: The Cultural Victimization of Victims
I’ve experienced being dismissed, blamed, and pathologized for being harmed. Caregivers minimized my distress, family members judged me for expressing it, and acquaintances labeled me oversensitive when I tried to speak about what happened. The world treated me not as … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse
Tagged connection, support, victim mentality, victimhood, victimizing, victims
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When “I’ll Pray for You” is a Symptom of Disconnection
I reached out to my brothers when I was in a protracted and deep struggle. I asked for safe connection, acknowledgment, and support. I needed them to see me and recognize how repeated abuse from the disease management industry had … Continue reading
The DSM is Bunk: IPNB Offers a Humane and Scientific Understanding of Mental Health
Some trauma experts have said that if the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) acknowledged trauma, it would be a very thin volume because virtually everything else would fall beneath it. But from an Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) … Continue reading
My Survival Is the Punchline: Cartooning the Awful Truth
I make cartoon watercolors because my system won’t let me keep it all inside. When something is too much, too absurd, too violating, or too flat-out dismissive, I feel compelled to get it out on paper. It’s not an intellectual … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Healthcare
Tagged accountability, art, cartoons, creativity, expression, integration, medical abuse, Medicine, psychiatry, watercolors
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