Why Understanding Abuse & Trauma is Necessary for Social Justice Work

The focus of Yopp has always been to discuss all things related to social justice and civil rights. But another important topic that emerged fairly early on was issues related to abuse and trauma. Without much thought, we started writing a number of articles specifically about the experience of being abused, the aftermath, what recovery looks like, etc. We never really considered that the connection between abuse and trauma, and social justice may not be obvious to everyone. It occurred to us that it might be valuable to spell out these connections in article form. 

I Think My Friend is Being Abused. What Now?

Being able to recognize that you are being abused, while the abuse is still happening, is mind-bogglingly difficult. I say mind-boggling because even though dozens of people trying to tell me that my relationship was abusive was completely ineffective for me, it’s still my first instinct when someone’s partner exhibits abusive behaviors to just try to tell them that. I know that this extremely straightforward tactic doesn’t work, but what other choice do I have? This article explores that question.

9 Things That Blocked My Access to Medical Treatment

This is a new version of an article that was originally published as “26,” about the early attempts to diagnose the cause of my chronic pain and other symptoms, and the many ways my access to medical treatment was blocked for years prior.

What Does Dissociation Feel Like?

How did I spend ten years of receiving treatment from eight different therapists, as well as doing my own research on mental health, and never realize I was dissociating so much? Because I didn’t realize what I was feeling was dissociation!

Early Signs That I Had Dissociative Identity Disorder

When I was first diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, I was pretty shocked. I didn’t exhibit a lot of the most obvious signs I had seen in media. To help reorient myself, I began carefully reviewing the chapters of my life and looking for the hidden signs of DID that I had previously missed. I ended up finding quite a few.