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.

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.

Everything You Need to Know About Boundaries

Boundaries are magic.  They are protective and allow us to navigate our life as empowered and autonomous individuals.  Most of us come to learn our boundaries through trial and error, and may not get good support around forming or establishing boundaries in relationships.  As we approach a season of gatherings, including those with family we don’t have good relationships with, taking intentional time to reflect on who we’re connected to and how we want those connections to look can be valuable.

Article on Medium: Why Does Everything Feel So Hard Right Now If I’m Fine

Soon after the beginning of the pandemic, I found that if I didn’t work hard to use my systems and tools meant to support my mental health, my functionality would quickly deteriorate. I frequently felt like I wasn’t okay and also that I had no business feeling that way.

Recovering from Abuse: Was Everything My Fault?

I have a large number of friends who have been through at least one kind of abuse and I’ve noticed that if someone has gone through the process of recovering from abuse at least once, it becomes much more important to them to evaluate future behaviors as potentially abusive. But having the intense desire to avoid ever suffering abuse again, and actually identifying abuse are two very different things.

It Can’t Be That Bad: How the Medical System Let Me Fall Through the Cracks

As more and more stories of medical neglect as a result of marginalization are brought to light, I hope that we can collectively reduce that disconnect and bring understanding and accommodation of marginalized backgrounds into our medical system, rather than using the medical system to further enforce their oppression. Maya Strong’s guest post today is one of those stories.