I originally wrote this letter for a dear friend of mine about the process of healing from trauma and life after abuse, in 2018. The blog that published it has sadly gone dark since then. I wanted to make sure that this piece could still be enjoyed and potentially shared with your own close friends if they’ve been through something similar.
Category: Voices
A collection of personal stories and anecdotes showing the ways oppression affects us on a day to day basis, as well as our reactions to it.
Look for opportunities to submit your story to this segment in the near future.
Disclosing Disability: Why It’s Hard to Reveal My Disability to Strangers
I originally wrote this piece about disclosing disability in the early days of my grappling with the loss of dance as a result of my disability. Since then, my baseline ability has fluctuated many times but even five years later, this piece still resonates strongly with the complex evaluation process necessary to safely disclose a disability, and the grief that comes when the onset of disability is later in life.
My Sometimes Invisible Disability
In addition to my disability being dynamic, it also straddles the divide between a visible and an invisible disability, to the point that I can hide it if I want to. But moving between visible and invisible means I also have to make a choice between scrutiny and erasure.
Video: 5 Things That Improved in Our Life After Our DID Diagnosis
We’ve been vocal about how grateful we are to be out as a DID system so it should come as no surprise that our life after our DID diagnosis was significantly improved.
Is Dissociative Identity Disorder Divergent or Disordered?
I believe having DID falls under the neurodivergent umbrella, but at the same time it is a mental illness that can cause a great deal of distress. So, is Dissociative Identity Disorder divergent or disordered?
Why Leaving an Abusive Friendship is So Hard
Partner violence is often centered in conversations about emotional abuse, when truthfully, leaving an abusive friendship can be just as hard
A Guide to Social Etiquette When Interacting with My DID System
A frequent request we’ve encountered is to create a guide to interacting with DID systems. We’re offering a list of our own preferences around social interactions and a list of questions to help you get to know the specific preferences of the system(s) you know.
Resistance to Conformity: Balancing Authenticity with Community
I’d like you to please welcome a new writer on the Yopp platform, Eleni Stephanides! She’s here to talk about the complexities of conformity: the damage it can do, and the benefits it can yield when used well.
Choosing Violence: On Allyship and the Legacy of John Brown
Something that hasn’t been explored a lot on this blog is historical figures in the social justice world. There is a lot to be learned in the accomplishments of activists of the past, as well as in the present day reactions to these activists’ legacy. Denny Upkins is back with a look at the historical figure John Brown and the importance of facing oppression head-on, without compromise. CN: Detailed discussion of racial violence and discrimination, …Read More
Poetry & Trauma: It Is Hard to Write with a Broken Heart
This week my debut poetry book, “Pet: the Journey from Abuse to Recovery” comes out. The poetry sequence takes you through my experiences in an abusive relationship, my attempts to heal, my retrospective reflections on the relationship, and the larger-scale insights that came with long-term healing. To introduce it, I wanted to share with you this piece about what it took to write that book in the first place.