Category Archives: Abuse
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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From Personal Trauma to Systemic Abuse, the Antidote is the Same
The same dynamics I experienced as a child–unpredictable abuse, bystanders who froze, and systems that protected the abuser–are now playing out on a much larger scale in the world. In medical systems, the same patterns repeat. People suffer abuse, neglect, … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Politics
Tagged authoritaianism, Community, creating, dancing, Domination, laughter, politics, resistance, singing, support, survival
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When Help Harms: How Welfare Humiliates the People It Supposedly Serves
I’ve had severe Complex PTSD nearly my whole life. In my young adult years, that meant a lot of financial instability. I tried my damndest to land and keep jobs, build a positive social environment, pursue education, keep my health … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse
Tagged abuse, abusive systems, humiliation, IPNB, shame, support, welfare
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