I believe that, irrelevant of someone's childhood experiences, if someone is exposed to repeated and chronic bullying, gaslighting, and psychological abuse, followed by repeated and chronic invalidation of their suffering, and trivialisation or denial of their experiences.....

.....then you will eventually be presented with somebody who shows increasing distress and dysregulation, which can then be pathologised as being an inherent defect in the individual - just how they are, and how they've always been - whether it's true or not.

You will see someone that has lost belief in protective systems, someone that has lost faith and trust in others, and someone filled with self-doubt.

You will, in essence, see the very symptoms that are caused by a type of trauma that you do not recognise, or do not want to see!

It is a type of abuse that is recognised much more within the peer community than by those we reach out to. Only those that have sustained such damage to their very spirit when at their most vulnerable can understand how it erodes all aspects of the person and their world views.

Yet this is often seen by those we reach out to in a very different way to how it is seen by those that have suffered such sustained levels of psychological and emotional abuse - by those in a position of power and trust, within systems we are conditioned to believe in.

The 'symptoms' and 'behaviours' shown are seen as a cause of suffering, rather than the result of experiences that nobody should endure.

It becomes a catch 22 - a cycle of abuse and injustice that gathers momentum over time, with the pursuit of justice leading to further harm.

Nobody asks for help from MH services for the fun of it.
People do so because they have reached a limit, because they are scared, because they become unwell.

They often feel helpless, worthless, and hopeless. Not because of who they are, but because of what they have endured.

Please don't punish those who ask for help by dismissing their pain or denying them their truths.

Don't become a part of the story of adversity and abuse that they are burdened with.

Compassion costs nothing.