Category Archives: Abuse
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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Protect the Predator, Protect the Brand: How Hospitals Foster Criminal Behavior
Like pediatrics, family medicine, and mental health, gynecology is a medical specialty to which predators are attracted. Each specialty gives abusers access to numerous potential victims. An investigative report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified over 3,100 individual physicians named in … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse, Healthcare
Tagged abuse, Abuser, hospital, institutions, predator, safety
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What is the DARVO Tactic, and How Can We Respond?
Predators and other abusers often use the DARVO technique, a strategy that maintains control by destabilizing others. DARVO stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. It disrupts the relational context that helps people stay grounded in truth and … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse
Tagged abusers, boundaries, DARVO, DARVO tactic, Interoception, silencing, truth, witness
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How SEIU F***** Over Trauma Survivors
Several years ago, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) put up a website saying that they were looking for stories from people who had been gaslit, threatened, and otherwise abused by Universal Health Services (UHS), America’s largest psychiatric hospital chain. … Continue reading
Posted in Abuse
Tagged Behavioral Health, delaware, DOJ, exploitation, fraudulent billing, lawsuit, Mental Health, psychiatric hospital, SEIU, UHS, Universal Health Services
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