Hi,

I find this an interesting concept: that those who are abused are more likely to be honest.

I have also struggled with this in my own life. I have several theories as to why, but this is coming from my own personal recovery journey, so take it with a grain of salt.

I think I have seen literature on complex PTSD talk about how trauma and abuse has a large impact on molding our moral compass; however, that is a correlation not a causation. There are many children who are abused and become abusers themselves (psychopathy) - on the flip-side - there are many abuse survivors who become extremely caring and empathic for fellow survivors and find solace and recovery through post-traumatic growth; advocacy and other efforts to make the world a better place. What determines this is a topic for debate and has been blamed on a complex marriage of nature and nurture.

From my understanding, when someone goes through severe trauma and or abuse, it forever scars them. Abuse also carries with it some extremely important insight about human nature and how disgusting the world is. It is truly disturbing. Learning to survive in this world is especially hard when we have been abused and our moral compass is out of whack. Thinking for ourselves is sometimes seen as wrong or shameful when we have grown up in toxic shame.

As far as being honest and playing by the rules - I know for myself, that I am extremely honest. I would actually say I am too honest; in that I seem to attract abuse because I am so honest. My trauma in healthcare and the fact that I keep pushing an advocacy agenda against the corrupt and unethical healthcare profession has brought me a ton of extra trauma and lot of enemies. Ironically, it is the fact that I am so honest that this is happening in the first place, however, according to their documentation (which they have altered, falsified and deleted in a mass smear campaign in preparation for lawsuits and complaints), I have been labelled as a liar and manipulator, etc. It is extremely easy for healthcare professionals to intentionally write inconsistencies in my charts (based on what I tell them) and later claim that I lied. Of course, this is not true, but unfortunately their system affords this kind of power for situations just like these. The psychopathy in the healthcare professional is flourishing! SOO easy for them to destroy you, and they do. Classic smear campaign tactics when destroying the credibility of potential whistle-blowers / litigants / abuse survivors.

As much as it hurts to know this, I keep pushing the envelope because I know the truth deep down. I am an honest, genuine, compassionate and overly sensitive / empathic individual, and no amount of abuse will destroy that. I will never succumb to their level of psychopathy. Someone in a complex PTSD group recently said something about the importance of remaining a man of honesty and integrity, despite all the trauma and the reactions we may want to enact.

I didn't really answer any of your questions but I hope I added to the conversation a little.

Thanks,