Domestic Violence and Abuse

With painkillers like OxyContin, the overdose reversal drug naloxone, and detox/maintenance medications like Suboxone, the pharmaceutical industry is making a profit off people addicted to opioid at every stage. Opioids are highly addictive and sometimes, especially in combination with other drugs, deadly.

Victim blaming is a defense mechanism for bystanders to feel safe by falsely imagining that it “could be avoided if…” or “that can’t be the real story.” Content Warning: discussions of sexual assault In allegations of sexual assault, if there are no physical injuries and a lack of DNA evidence, the court of public opinion…

If I was home without a parent, I knew to answer the phone and say mom is in the shower or that dad is mowing the lawn. I knew to not open the door if anyone came knocking. I didn’t know I needed the same cautious self-protection when I logged on.

If abusers are such assholes, how do they get someone to fall in love with them in the first place? Easy, they're not just assholes, they're often charismatic and attractive. Oh, and very persuasive.

Breaking down some of the most devastating and important statistics about sexual violence.

One thing about trauma in PTSD is that it starts to show itself when you’re safe(r) than before. Our brains are working on overdrive trying to protect us and to handle all the threats and to keep us alive after the earth shattering trauma(s) we lived through. We feel scared because we know how bad…

Trust your intuition, relationship red flags aren't easy to identify, but there are warning signs. Are you dating an abuser?

It is long past time to stop making judgments about what poverty looks like. Impoverished people do not fit into a neat stereotype of what acceptable poverty is or isn’t.

Sexual assault and harassment boil down to a violation of one basic principle: consent. Never assume consent. Lack of resistance is not consent.

A comprehensive listing of suicide intervention and crisis support hotlines and contacts. Talk to someone via chat, text, phone, or email. Find help for yourself or someone else.

There is a lot of value in talking about survival and moving forward in life. It is important to see what the future can hold, but when you feel alone in the thick of sorrow the only thing that you want is to feel less alone.

For many battling depression and other mental illness, social networking sites are the only place they feel understood. The internet keeps the door to the outside world ajar just enough to make it possible for help to sneak through.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos warned that she would not protect the Obama-era guidelines that helped schools establish systems and policies for investigating allegations of sexual misconduct. As early as January, during her confirmation hearings, DeVos said she would not commit to protecting those guidelines.

Self-compassion protects us from ourselves. Another 2017 study published in School Psychology Quarterly found that self-compassion protects adolescents from inflicting self-harm because "those high on self-compassion may be more likely to use adaptive strategies" for dealing with pain and suffering.

The current political climate in the United States is putting victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and the police officers who respond to their emergency calls in greater danger. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said one of his top issues is protecting police officers; the White House website even included “Standing Up For Our Law Enforcement Community” as part of its priorities. But…

There are many reasons people return to domestic abusers. One of which is the psychological phenomena of re-enactments and re-experiencing.

Photo Courtesy of Adrian Herrera of Victor Herrera Photographers To take care of myself in the months preceding my wedding I had to make a conscious effort to not dive into dieting. Wedding weight loss was off the list of things for me to do, or to even attempt. As soon as I begin to…

Retracting an abuse allegation is not proof that the abused is lying or that the alleged abuser is innocent. Rape is amongst the most underreported crimes. Victims face enormous obstacles in the aftermath of rape. Not the least of which is deciding whether or not to contact the police. The justice system is designed to be a hostile…

Donald Trump is the President-Elect, and it is not good news for mental health care. Unlike Hillary Clinton, who had a comprehensive mental-health-care program as part of her platform, it’s difficult to discern what Trump’s plan is — or if he has one at all.

The first time my ex-boyfriend got violent, we had been together for less than a year. He shoved me and then acted like he didn’t mean it. Moments later he did it again.

That’s when it clicked: I can’t watch Trump because he is a manipulator, and his manner of speaking is that of an emotional abuser. That’s why I was finding myself fighting panic and flashbacks when I first tried watching him debate. I was flashing back to my own experience as a victim of abuse.

In August, 62-year-old Kathleen Steele was arrested for the death of her infant child, who was killed by the hands of Steele’s 6-year-old son. Steele left her three children in the car, aged 13 days, 3 years and 6 years. According to reports, Steele left her kids in a parked car with the windows up…

With Stanford rapist Brock Turner being released from prison Friday after a laughably short sentence, it’s time to look at privilege. Again. Widely publicized news stories paint a picture of the powerful (read: white and those benefiting from white male power structures) being protected because of their (imagined, good) intent — while the disenfranchised (read: people of color) are punished for theirs.

"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?" Pope Francis

Childhood is defined by culturally set boundaries which have changed throughout human history. There are millions of children trafficked around the world and forced into lives of depravity and despair.

I know surprisingly few people who would admit to having suffered abuse. Is it because we are ashamed? Because we blame ourselves? Because we're scared?

Kids who go hungry suffer dire health consequences: stunted growth, more likely to get sick and stay sick and even be hospitalized, constant fatigue, and poor performance in school.

Children are affected by their parents inability to pay for and attend doctors visits. One mother waited to take her daughter in for an ear infection, resulting in hearing loss for the child.

“There are more slaves today than were seized from Africa in four centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.” Andrew Cockburn Children work all over the world in thousands of different industries many children are in servitude so they earn no income as they are often paying off debts for themselves or their family through their…