Has anyone asked people who have experienced psychological, physical and sexual trauma in childhood whether they want to be asked what happened to them over and over and over again in every public service they come across for the rest of their life?

#pleasemakeitstop

I have *never* had a good outcome from people in health or policing enquiring about what happened to me. People knowing what happened to me has led to some pretty awful reactions, and I wish, and genuinely believe my care would have been better, if they hadn’t ever known.

Of the best mental health assessments I have had in my life (four in particular), three didn’t explore the abuse much at all, but did thoroughly explore and assess what I experience, family history, what I needed now, and more. It was immensely helpful not to go into it and focus

One of those assessments was over two days, one was an incredibly detailed and diligent forensic assessment, one did explore it but entirely on my terms. They didn’t, at any point, ask me what had happened to me and expect that would define my future.

I do talk about what happened to me, but doing so again over this weekend in trying to educate and advocate has reminded me how unwell it can make me to offer up that in the hope for a response and system change to people who do not.

It was a mental health professional who further abused me