alexis on trauma

Trauma – Alexis Quinn, Rightful Lives (2023) – 8 min video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15N0H-sHrQ4]:

Alexis Quinn talks about the experience of trauma for autistic people and how best to help.

intro’d to alexis via mad in america rt [https://x.com/JDaviesPhD/status/1752230226426306908?s=20]:

“Alexis Quinn’s escape from psychiatric care has now exposed nearly 20,000 sexual abuse and harassment complaints across more than 30 NHS England mental health trusts”.

links to paywalled sky news article.. free is on independent site [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/sexual-abuse-mental-health-uk-b2484163.html]

Mental health patients ‘raped and sexually assaulted’ as NHS abuse scandal revealed – A major investigation by The Independent’s Rebecca Thomas and Sky News’s Rob Mulhern has revealed the horrific scale of sexual abuse and assault within the UK’s psychiatric system

ens of thousands of sexual assaults and incidents have been reported in NHS-run mental health hospitals as a “national scandal” of sexual abuse of patients on psychiatric wards can be revealed.

Almost 20,000 reports of sexual incidents in the last five years have been made in more than half of NHS mental health trusts, according to exclusive data uncovered in a joint investigation and podcast by The Independent and Sky News.

The shocking findings, triggered by one woman’s dramatic story of escape following a sexual assault in hospital revealed in a podcast, Patient 11, show NHS trusts are failing to report the majority of incidents to the police and are not meeting vital standards designed to protect the UK’s most vulnerable patients from sexual harm.

then has 1 hr long podcast

“It is deeply troubling to see that so many incidents in mental health settings go unreported.”

“I have struggled with trauma since then and I’m scared of asking for help [from mental health services],” she said. “When I’m feeling bad, I don’t know where to turn to. You believe when you’re in a hospital, you should be safe. I’ve learned that there is no safety in mental health hospitals.”

Ms Quinn, a former swimming star and teacher, was admitted to Littlebrook Hospital in Kent in 2013 after seeking support from mental health services following her brother’s death.

Within hours of her admission, she claims she was sexually assaulted by a male patient after being placed on an all-male ward.

Ms Quinn immediately ran to tell staff who tried to send her back to the ward where her attacker remained, she claimed. Distressed and panicked, she was restrained and then placed in solitary confinement.

Ms Quinn said: “You know, I blame the system for putting me in that situation, for not safeguarding me – this is a systemic problem. I thought it was just me, but it’s not just me, it’s thousands.”

grammatis broken law et al

notes/quotes from video:

am author of book called unbroken and this talk is about trauma.. the source of some challenging behavior and how to help

unbroken [https://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-Learning-Live-Beyond-Diagnosis-ebook/dp/B0CJJH83LB/]:

Unbroken: Learning to Live Beyond Diagnosis (2022)

Alexis Quinn has always known she was different. Academically and athletically gifted, she soared through her years in education but failed to socialise adequately with her peers. Somehow, social norms just passed her by. But her difference had always been her strength, until the birth of her child and the death of her brother, Josh; then her difference became her downfall. Unable to deal with the reality of what happened with Josh, Alexis was detained under the mental health act against her will. She found herself struggling for years, with diagnosis after diagnosis landing on her shoulders. Told repeatedly by doctors that she was dangerous, Alexis tried to become the person the system wanted her to be: someone normal. But it seemed that normal was always just out of reach. As time went by, she realised that the care she thought was going to help her might just be the very thing that would destroy her. Raw and honest, Unbroken tells the story of a strong woman learning how to live beyond diagnosis.

myth of normal et al

more and more research shows link between a wider range of things that can happen in life being interpreted as traumatic of autistic people.. then people autistic people as result of those experience.. experience pts..

1 min – impact of these events can be devastating esp when fear interaction of others because past experience has shown that actually people and interactions can be harmful.. bullying et al.. if avoid them people think i’m weird.. so really difficult to seek comfort in people when these things happen.. always that fear that interaction might actually accrue more traumatic experience

2 min – for me.. these traumas both in past and now have resulted in a real sort of singular focus that i just can’t move from.. med language: cog inflexibility and rigidity of thought.. my experience.. just get really stuck and thought goes round and round and just can’t move from it.. perhaps this is a function of my mono-tropic/autistic mind.. my efforts to manage things in past result in 2 states: 1\ continually comparing current experience to what i want to happen 2\ constantly analyzing my thinking to try and make sense of an solve my perceived problems..

these repeated thoughts/ideas usually center around traumatic life events.. for me that’s bereavement, interpersonal bullying/ostersizing trauma, and restraint of course.. and i’m trying to process difficult emotions associated those things.. and so i get stuck.. so unable to detach from those two types of thoughts that i actually lose my ability to see those things as a thought and instead i see them as instructions or commands..

3 min – this is really important.. losing sense of i/self.. and so often that’s confused w psychosis or even ocd.. to relieve this and find myself again.. i have engaged in dangerous sensory seeking behavior that put myself/others at risk.. i have friends that describe this same internal process.. same cog processes.. that for them have resulted in not eating for maybe days/months/years.. others have felt need to attack people.. bang heads repeatedly on walls.. scratch their skin off.. et al.. the expressions of this same process are really endless

4 min – as i try to manage in a diff way and to disengage from that stuckness and regain my sense of i.. i might become hyper aroused again.. and as people respond to my challenging behavior.. my sensory seeking that i’m unable to disengage from.. i might experience more trauma from the interaction.. esp if it involves a harsh word.. frustration from people.. or even the use of restrictive practices.. and more negative thoughts/feelings are generated.. these don’t have to be actual interactions/experiences.. might be something i’m perceiving myself and it becomes part of that stuckness cycle.. so you’re kind of relying on others to keep sort of grounding your experience/understanding because you become unaware of what’s real and what’s not real

5 min – i believe this stuckness to be related to my increased preference for predictability.. i’m quite intolerant of not knowing what’s going on.. of ambiguity.. so my experiences of relational trauma.. and of death and of restraint.. are all inherently characterized by unpredictability .. by lack of control.. so that causes me to want to keep things the same.. to control my internal world.. my thoughts/feelings/interactions..

but seeking to understand that which is not understandable and thinking about the causes/consequences of it and my reactions.. are actually causing those intrusive memories to come back up again .. and then that furthers that singular focus on the trauma.. so it creates a kind of re experiencing in itself.. as well as maintaining the re experiencing after it’s developed

6 min – so what we see .. is the bi directional association and mutual maintenance between re experiencing and singular focus.. and certainly for me.. esp when i’m not sure what’s real and what’s not real.. and when i get into that stuck ness and i get frustrated with myself.. i experience that burnout and compassion for myself.. burnout in relationship with others and a trust in my ability to reasonable/responsible in relationships

7 min – so for those supporting the traumatized and the autistic traumatized people.. the question is how to respect people’s mono tropic minds and to support their trauma.. unfortunately i don’t have an answer that beyond clues readily available in trauma informed curriculum.. like: providing safety/choice/collab/trustworthiness/opportunities.. beyond that i hope that maybe in this video might help generate convos/understanding of processes and internal mechs.. that we might at least respect some of the causes/experiences/after-effects when people are exhibiting challenging behavior and showing that kind of stuck ness.. that we might behave in more compassionate/loving ways

_______

_______

_______

_______

_______

________

_____