Trauma
Self-Determination
I really started to learn about self-determination when I went into an institution when I was five years old. I am one of four children and I lived in three different New York State institutions
Mental illness is a coping mechanism
Mental illness is a coping mechanism. We know for sure that victims of horrendous childhood sexual abuse, most often by a family member from whom they can't escape, use such coping mechanisms as dissociation (going
Anna’s story: The effects of sexual abuse, the system’s failure to respond and the emergence of a new, trauma-based paradigm
From the age of 13 to her recent death at the age of 32, my daughter Anna was viewed and treated by the mental health system as "severely and chronically mentally ill." Communication
Coping with the Tragedy
The following article was included in an e- newsletter from the Mental Health Association in North Carolina North Carolina is no stranger to hurricanes and the devastation they can cause, but Hurricane Katrina has proven