White supremacists target woc who love white men — Meghan Markle said in episode 2 of her Archetypes podcast, reports Entertainment Tonight, that she until she began dating Harry, she felt she was treated as a mixed-race woman. When she stepped out with Harry, however, the hatred emerged, and she felt targeted and ID’d as Black. It’s a vulnerable…

The Angry Women of Color in My Life — My mother is the darkest-skinned member of my extended family. She refuses to leave the house without curling her hair into waves more palatable for the white-washed suburbs in which I was raised. …

Miscommunication. Misunderstanding. All Misnomers for the same damn thing. — A man pulls me to the floor. I let him. I am drunk. I have not eaten more than two granola bars in two days. We are in a well-lit area, the floor of a hotel crowded with twentysomethings, Birthright participants like us. …

Rape killed the best woman I’ve ever known, so no. I’m still not over it. — My friend killed herself, and for the longest time I thought it was my fault. That night, she was drinking. D was always drinking, by then. She drank during the day. She drank all night long. She drank and sometimes she popped pills, but why would I worry about that…

The Only Survivors of Crimes Who Get Blamed for Our Trauma — When I was a child, my world revolved around my parents’ domestic abuse. My father berates my mother in the background of most of my memories of my early life. My mother yelled at me every time I tried to express an independent thought or boundary because she assumed that…

When Self-Help and Pathological Avoidance are Intertwined — Two days ago, I messaged my online therapist. I told her I am having trouble concentrating on my day-to-day tasks because I have been flooded with traumatic childhood memories of abuse. Her response? To send me a gratitude worksheet. Look, I practice my daily gratitude list, okay? I get it…

This “Modern Day Hysteria” Stigmatizes Survivors of Child Abuse — When I discovered the definition for Borderline Personality Disorder, I remember feeling excitement and relief. Finally someone understood me. As a child abuse survivor who has been raped in adulthood as well, I have struggled with mental health for a very long time. The first time I remember thinking about…

Listen to what your body has to tell you, even when it hurts — I have pelvic pain that never goes away. This pelvic pain is called “pudendal neuralgia.” It is the result of damage done to the pelvis caused by — well, a long list of factors, according to the CDC. Prolonged sitting. Horseback riding. Childbirth. Or, you know, sexual violence. This pain…

How not to talk to your disabled and traumatized clients — I recently told my therapist of five months that I wanted to refocus our therapeutic discussions on my history of child abuse. Given that I was having more dissociative episodes than usual, even given my DID diagnosis, and that I was starting to have nightmares about the trauma once again…