Absolute must-read. Harrowing account of how women are pathologized in medicine and specifically psychiatry. Dr. Jessica Taylor talks about her experiences working with women and girls who reported abuse and 100% were diagnosed with some psychiatric disorder. She argues that these women do not have a psychiatric "disorder" at all--they are having logical and reasonable trauma-responses to their experiences. That is all. They do not need medicine, they need compassion, someone to listen to and believe them, trauma-informed therapy, and various different coping skills.
I was interested in this book because of my own experiences in psychiatry since I was a pre-teen. My parents very much wanted me medicated and even at a young age I just felt like I just needed guidance and someone to talk to, and maybe some patient and compassionate tutoring in some school subjects. I remember how easy it was to get diagnosed, the ridiculous claims that the psychiatrists made ("Why, yes! Of course it is absolutely easy for everyone else to easily concentrate on subjects that don't interest them at your age [12-14 years old]. Since you struggle, that is a sure sign you have ADD and depression." I wish I was joking, but yes, this is exactly how it was said to me, and I remember thinking...I just don't think this is true.)
I remember not wanting to take the pills and throwing them away, and both my parents and the psychiatrists claimed that they could see a big difference in my behavior since I started "taking" the medication. Funny.
I have a sister now who is taking several different psychiatric medications. She claims they help her, but she is more sedated, anxious, and non-productive than I have ever seen her. It breaks my heart. From my eyes I see that the medication is not working. Perhaps it helps her not to feel whatever she's feeling, but it certainly doesn't help her be happy and cope.
I realize this can be a sensitive subject for people, and of course I do not recommend stop taking medication cold-turkey. In fact, Dr. Jessica Taylor talks about how often pregnant women are diagnosed with "relapsing" when they go off their medication while pregnant, when in fact it is most likely that they are experience severe withdrawal symptoms. I'm not even here to say "stop taking medication" at all. That has to be your choice, and you know yourself best. I was one of the people who didn't want it, didn't need it, and others tried to force it on me anyway. This book helped put into perspective on why that might be.
My favorite line from the book is this:
"There will be times in a woman's life where the trauma does not impact her on a daily basis (psychiatric terms: her diagnosis is "in remission"), but there will be other times in her life where the trauma is triggered and she re-experiences trauma responses, coping mechanisms, psychological and physiological distress from experiences that may have happened months, years, or decades ago (psychiatric terms: her diagnosis is "relapsing")."
Thank you so much for this post! It has always rubbed me the wrong way that women who were abused as children inevitably get diagnosed and stigmatized forever, while abused boys are given counseling and assurances that they can still go on to lead a normal life as adults. See also: women with depression, women who aren't attracted to their fat balding cruel LVM scrote husband anymore (frigidity!), women who need time to recover from the hormone rollercoaster of pregnancy, birth, and nursing; women who choose not to marry; women who choose not to remarry after being divorced or widowed; women who retaliate against their abuser with violence; women who want many children; women who don't want children...the list is endless.
80% of the ICD-10 and the DSM 5 would disappear if complex trauma was acknowledged.
💯 :::TRAUMA:::: Complex-PTSD from what sheer hells women have survived needs to be talked about more. Too many psychiatrists and therapists are not genuinely trauma-informed.
Its horrifying that “trauma informed” has only become mainstream in the last 10 years given that most people seeking help have significant trauma but are given outdated, antiquated modalities for treatment.
I quit the therapy, self-help and personal growth and new age “industrial complexes” about 4-5 years ago when I started watching youtube videos about parental narcissism and hyper gamy.🤣🥶😎.
I was shocked to discover that both of my parents are trademark narcs and yet not a single health professional I had worked with (including for years) had diagnosed it. I also did couple’s therapy where the therapist said I needed to negotiate with my boyfriend to split rent and live together, had a therapist answer her phone during session to give her son a grocery list, had white therapists tell me I was “too sensitive” about racism, and it goes on…
💡Any time there is profit involved, we should be more skeptical. Mental health care DOES work for some people and they should stick with it. But if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for you.
Had a harrowing experience with a psychiatrist this past year. He was a full blown narc. I was in too much pain to see it right away. I was having scary physical symptoms and no one would believe it was physical or prescribe me the right check ups, and I developed extreme panic from feeling powerless to get help. Then the panic became the reason I wasn't a "reliable narrator" of my symptoms. I couldn't win. I surrendered to trying SSRI because I was powerless to do anything else, but I shouldn't have trusted him. He was so clearly a mysogynist.
I start the medication and I had ALL sorts of side effects. I'm not talking the usual ones. My whole neurology (cognition, perception, sensibility, sleep, sense of balance, coordination, ability to walk, muscles) just shut down. I called him to take me off them, my brain was in such chaos I could barely talk and think. He told me I was being an "oppositive and childlike patient" and that whatever I had couldn't possibly be the meds. I thought I was going to die, because nothing in my brain and body was working, to the extreme. I insisted he take me off them, I was even scared to stop them by myself for how unpredictable the whole reaction had been. And since he wasn't listening to me and I was even struggling to talk at that point, my father called him worried sick. As a result HE dropped ME as a patient, citing "boundaries", aka my father's intervention. I was left 1 month on meds that impaired me and paralyzed me and it took 2 more months like that to get off them and another month to regain normal neurological functions and being able to go to a FEMALE doctor, who figured out that my B12 had been dangerously low, and my hormons were all over the place. I am still recovering from this shit show only thanks to her and occasionaly relapsing with muscle pains, fatigue and stuff, and who knows if I will be back to my old self fully, but guess what, my feeling that something was wrong with my body was because something was. And if there was a trauma/stress component to it, well this absolute PTSD inducing nightmare didn't help, did it. Like it didn't help that my ex, thought it was a good idea to have sex with me in that state, told me he would take care of me as a "friend" and then disappeared. "Friends with exes" my ass.
Sorry for sharing this, I'm honestly doing great for what I've been through this year. Back in therapy, moved house and a great one, started dance classes, volunteering, making new friends and ditching the ex. But I've been feeling ill again these past days and I'm having flashbacks of past spring when I couldn't walk. I've been wanting to read this book very much but I'm scared it will trigger me.
The thing is, unlike relationship trauma, I haven't found a community on the internet where to process medical trauma and mysogyny, which unfortunately I've experienced plenty in my life.
Seconding this post. That book is a goldmine and should be prescribed reading to every woman ever.
There is FDS podcast episode with her
I subscribe to her Substack and have followed her for a few years. Her work is so important.
I love Dr Jessica Taylor so much! The world needs more women like her. I don't have anything else to add, I just wanted to fangirl it up. ✨💕
Thanks for the reminder! I heard about this book on the podcast earlier this year and then sadly forgot about it.
I'm glad someone is writing about the continued oppression of women by the medical establishment. But it would enrage me to read this. They are making so much profit off of human pain and trauma. Notice how they always want to "manage" conditions to keep the profit mill running. How dare anyone try to find a cure for anything. They'd lose all their money and power. Men doctors are ultimate scrotes.
I’m reading it now, it’s a heavy but fantastic read
I broke my neck and jaw in the Army, and I still have 13 herniated discs in my spine. For 20 years, doctors and shrinks have written me up saying, "Her pain is mental and emotional. There's nothing wrong with her." when I literally have a DMX and several MRIs proving that all of the ligaments from C0 down to T5 are torn, discs bulging and herniated in that area and my lower back, and my right hip is adhesed. I have a hole on my right thigh that my body fills up with fat to protect the wounded area. And even with all of that evidence, they call me a "hysterical female." I do not trust doctors or shrinks AT ALL--especially mainstream doctors. The only ones who've ever helped me have been unassociated with Big Pharma or the military. There's a reason why "therapist" is "the rapist."