Comments on: Connection Between Abuse & Mental Illness

By: kyoungpsyd

kyoungpsyd — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:12:03 +0000

This is very informative. I have written myself about the link between abuse and emotional/physical health and how to recognize emotional abuse. “Crazy making” is such an apt description and a term I use in educating my clients about how to recognize the patterns of DV.

By: Connection Between Abuse and Mental Illness « Consider kindness’s Blog

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:42:37 +0000

[...] For more on this article go here: « First Impressions are Important for a Trusting Relationship [...]

By: acyd

acyd — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:54:00 +0000

When I was a child I endured severe trauma and abuse. I recently was diagnosed with Malignant Narcissism that is comorbid with a handful of other personality disorders, which basically add up to the modern day definition of a psychopath.

I’m not sad. I feel what can best be described as “all consuming rage” because a diagnosis like this will ruin my life.

I just felt like telling a stranger, that’s all.

By: scs

scs — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:18:00 +0000

MENTAL HEALTH CONSUMER PROVEDER
I have personal experience with this subject. I was disabled, in treatment and receiving social security for five years. I joined a club house in Newton Massachusetts. After this I found a telemarketing job. A year and six months into this recovery I got a residential counselor working with individuals called mentally retarded. I slept overnight three nights an excellent situation for someone with depression. The agency had tuition reimbursement if you stayed on for a year. I took advantage of this and enrolled in the U Mass Boston Rehab Counseling program. I latter moved into a therapeutic community and worked as a counselor. Because I have dyslexia it took seven years to get my Masters. When I did I took a job with a Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) in central Massachusetts. I was able to advocate for clients and help them with a lot of problems. The psychiatrist and staff were supportive but my LD caused some problems with a clerical person. After four years I moved near Boston to take a better paying job with a PACT in Malden as a Vocational Counselor. The company Tri-City Mental Health Center (TCMHC) was merging with Eliot Community Mental Health (ECMH).
No one new I had a disability when I took the job. The manager saw I had the experience of being on an effectively operated PACT and they offered me an extra week vacation and a large pay increase. After taking the job I saw that clients were not getting services they needed like help with housing and jobs. I raised these concerns with Aaron Katz the program director but the response I got was that I shouldn’t bring up such issues. Soon the work place became hostile and I got the “you aren’t fitting in talk” from management. One manager M Mathews denied she offered me an extra week vacation. Then I got written up and a termination threat for late paper work. Some of the paper work was the program directors responsibility. I advocated for my self and asked for accommodations I am entitled to under the American’s with Disabilities Act. My request was denied by a Katz. But, when a client in crisis did not get help from management in a timely manner after I brought this to the managers attention I got blamed. I filed two grievances with the union but management ignored them.
Soon I was thrown out like the trash. I developed psychiatric symptoms and entered counseling. But I had to go without treatment. ECHS management contested my unemployment claim and refused to pay me for my last two weeks work. Because of all this I lost my health insurance and couldn’t continue taking medications or seeing a therapist, Now, I can not get a good job because I do not have a reference from my last employer. My health problems have not been treated and I am applying for Social Security Disability.
I found management’s main interest was in misleading the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health about how the PACT was operated. Ethical issues were not to be discussed. Dishonesty and hostility were the foundations of management’s practice. They treat counselors like dogs.

Signed,
Dog Meat
(A former ECHS consumer-provider.)

By: nutmeg

nutmeg — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:56:05 +0000

Wow, what a great post! My daughter has been undergoing systematic verbal and emotional abuse by her father. I’m going to share this with her when she gets off work. She’s 16 and it hurts her so much.

By: Connection Between Abuse & Mental Illness

Connection Between Abuse & Mental Illness — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:12:04 +0000

[...] admin wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptLinking domestic violence advocacy with mental health and substance abuse service delivery is critical for the prevention of future violence and its sequelae.” –Domestic Violence & Mental Health Policy Initiative. http://www.dvmhpi.org … [...]

By: lily

lily — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 01:29:00 +0000

That's an interesting post. I've found a website that can be pretty handy for overcoming post traumatic stress. Might want to give it a try at http://www.howtorelievestress.org