The source of her pain, early childhood sexual abuse trauma, was an anomaly - a contradiction to the paradigm, and so could not be seen. The table following this article illustrates that retraumatization. This was especially true in the use of psychotropic medication. Survivors of trauma tell us the capacity to think and to feel fully is essential for recovery. Psychotropic drugs continually robbed Anna of these capacities.
Medication can be helpful if used cautiously, with the patient's full understanding and consent.
But without knowledge of which medications can alleviate symptoms and facilitate recovery from trauma medications can cause incalculable damage. For Anna, psycho-pharmaceutical treatment was a metaphor for her onginal trauma. As sexual assault had violated physical and psychological boundaries of self, forced neuroleptic drugs intruded past her boundaries, invading, altering and disabling her mind, body and emotions. But a new paradigm, based on trauma, is emerging. Paradigm shifts are always initially resisted.