“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.” ~ Judith Lewis Herman
PTSD: The Impact Of Stigma On Firefighters. An Inside Perspective
For fifteen years of my life I had the great honor of being part of the volunteer fire service family. I, like most people who sign up, caught the fire service fever. As a result, it got into my blood and still runs through my veins to this day.
I’m the host of A New Dawn podcast where we dialogue to humanize mental illness. This has been a passion of mine for years. I am a mother, grandmother and a teacher in the public school system. I raised my children as a single mother for 18 years, working minimum-wage jobs, living paycheck to paycheck. We struggled, were homeless once and I always knew I needed to complete my degree to make more money, but life prevented this and threw various obstacles in my path.