What the HELL Type of Therapy Is This?

What the HELL Type of Therapy Is This?

Hello Wellness Seekers:

I’ve been absent from my blog writing in the past many months. All I can say is “WOW!” If the sky had fallen it did on my life. Last year, child abuse appeared at my doorstep and I invited her in, along with her sister. Their story is so sad I could hardly cope with the news. I’ve been working with trauma survivors for the past 15 years, but when it strikes you in the gut–right in your family–the response is horrifying. The more I heard the more I was viciously triggered. Nightmares came back in floods and I was triggered each time Mary (not her real name) talked with me. I was so outraged I couldn’t control the anger that kept rising in my throat.

How could her parents do this and continue the abuse for more than a decade? The family knew nothing about what was happening to the girls. Our response: absolute shock, grief and anger.

Mary’s parents are members of a Catholic cult where girl children are made to dress in colorless clothes that cover the entire body. They were homeschooled where religious rules were strictly followed. Mary and her younger sister were told not to say anything to out-of-state relatives.

How could this happen in today’s world? Statistics show that child and domestic abuse are widespread all over the world. Thankfully there are numerous organizations who help abuse survivors cope with their trauma, but unfortunately, there is no treatment to completely heal. Abuse goes into our cells, bones, muscles, and memories and create devastating physical, psychological, and emotional illness. Case in point, Mary’s parents took her to see a Catholic cult therapist. This man had no credentials except he was a “man of God.” Their first meeting with him, he told Mary to sit on his lap. She said no, but her parents (who were in the room) guilted her to the point where she gave in. The first thing this man said was, “Mary, I can feel your genitals.” What the hell type of therapy is this?

Please help abuse survivors contact “credentialed professions” who do no harm to them.

Mary’s parents moved out of California before they were investigated and arrested, leaving Mary and her sister out on the streets. Mary’s sister lives in the alleys of a poor town, trying to find food and shelter. Mary showed up at our door. Hell broke out, but we had no legal options to help them. A county social worker was assigned to Mary’s sister, yet she still lives in the alleys. She’s addicted to drugs, cuts herself with a knife, and is sex-trafficked. This started when she was 16.

Abusive parents should:

  • be fully and completely investigated by Child Protective Services and police.
  • lose their parental rights.
  • have no access to their abused children.
  • get prison sentences.
  • be registered as perpetrators.

Depending on the severity of the abuse, child abuse can be found to be a misdemeanor or a felony in most states.

“According to a Cleveland Clinic podcast, adults who experienced trauma as kids are much more susceptible to depression and mood disorders, as well as thoughts of suicide. They are also likely to abuse alcohol and other substances. Finally, they are more prone to developing chronic illnesses, like diabetes and heart disease, later in life.” [Source: Signs of Childhood Trauma in Adults By Brittany Loggins,  updated on December 04, 2023, and medically reviewed by Ivy Kwong, LMFT]

Despite help from aunts, uncles, and nieces, Mary and her sister are experiencing unresolved mental illness that puts them at tremendous risk. Our help is constantly and legally blocked. We’ve called on many resources, but please respond to this post if you can help us. Thank you!

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Alexis Acker-Halbur is an award-winning author and medical miracle. Child abuse made her seriously ill and put her in harm’s way many times. She survives and shares her experiences and tools with people who are or have been emotionally, physically, sexually, spiritually traumatized.

 

Life-Long Effects of Poisoning on Adults – Part 2

Life-Long Effects of Poisoning on Adults – Part 2

In Part 1 of my blog, Life-long Effects of Lead Poisoning on Adults, I explained the side effects I have due to lead poisoning as a child. I have many auto-immune diseases and I wondered if the lead affected my immune system. I’m a walking medical petri dish and I want to know if there’s a correlation between lead poisoning as a child and my ill health as an adult. I’m not looking for something or someone to blame – I just want answers to the cause of my many health conditions.

First, let me give you a list of all the health issues I have (no sympathy required): Type 1 diabetes, kidney infection, hypertension, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Graves’ disease (overactive thyroid), clinical depression, cataracts, sleep apnea, and Stage 4 colon cancer – twice! When I asked my primary physician why I have so many health problems, he basically told me I had a bad gene pool. I accepted his answer with no further questions — until now!

Does lead poisoning in children cause damage to the immune system?

“The simple answer is yes,” says Elizabeth O’Brien from the Lead Education and Abatement Design Group in Australia. She adds, “but the problem is that many other things can cause problems with the immune system, so the only way to determine if lead is the cause is to ask the doctor to do a blood lead test.” She further states that, “Heavy metal exposure may develop autoimmunity as well as immunotoxicity. Autoimmune diseases are those in which an individual’s own immune system attacks one or more tissues or organs resulting in functional impairment, inflammation and sometimes-permanent tissue damage….” This is exactly how diabetes Type 1 is explained in medical journals.

In his work, K.P. Mishra, M.D. wrote an abstract on Lead exposure and its impact on the immune system: a review. He states:

Metal toxicants which affect the immune system may contribute to an increased incidence of autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and cancer. In the recent past, there has been a growing concern among health and environmental scientists on the impact of environmental exposure to heavy metal lead on human health. In some instances, the immune system appears to be exquisitely sensitive to the toxic heavy metal lead as compared to other toxicological parameters.

In their abstract, Lead and Immune Function, authors R.R. Dietert and M.S. Piepenbrink stated,

The heavy metal lead is a widely deposited environmental toxicant known to impact numerous physiological systems, including the reproductive, neurological, hepatic, renal, and immune systems. Studies illustrating the capacity of lead to impair immune function and/or host resistance to disease date back to at least the 1960s.

Dietert and Piepenbrink also found “…lead exposure can produce a stark shift in immune functional capacity with a skewing predicted to elevate the risk of atopic and certain autoimmune diseases. Age-based exposure studies also suggest that levels of blood lead previously thought as safe, that is, below 10 microg/dl, may be associated with later life immune alterations.”

Hundreds of studies have found links between lead poisoning and: auditory and visual system alterations, behavioral impairment, renal function damage, Parkinson’s Disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, neurological disturbances, autism, osteoporosis, asthma, and peripheral artery disease.

What can we do?

The medical conditions above lead me to ask what can we do to prevent all of these health and behavioral effects. Here’s a list:

  1. Don’t panic! Never give up!
  2. Prevent lead poisoning from happening in the first place.
  3. Check the windows and paint in your home for lead if your house was built before 1978.
  4. Remediate all sources of lead in the environment and in your homes.
  5. Give immediate medical attention to children suspected of being lead poisoned.
  6. Require a lead blood test for all adults exhibiting the health problems listed in this blog.
  7. Recommend more research studies in repairing the immune system from lead poisoning.
  8. Provide federal grants to extend all researchers who have a vested interest in the correlation between lead poisoning and the immune system.
  9. Tell us your stories of how lead poisoning has impacted your health as an adult.

This is a HUGE task but a very crucial one. If we want to enhance the quality of life for children and adults with lead poisoning, lower medical costs, and expand current research, we must raise the awareness of life-long effects of lead and find solutions – today!