1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Free therapy for the day…’betrayal trauma.’ Most people filter life through the idea that things should be fair. And we expect situations that are unlawful to be treated as such. So when we watch somebody get away with horrible things without any real accountability, it’s really hard for us. This reaction is being caused by our president and his decisions. But also by leaders who are supposed to protect the country from abuse of power. Betrayal trauma is a term that psychologists came up with for a particular kind of trauma when you have a reasonable expectation that you can trust someone. Like a partner. Or a doctor. Or a person in position of authority. This betrayal of trust also results in loss of our ability to judge what is safe or not. Or what is real or not. Add to that, ‘institutional betrayal.’ Time and time again the Trump administration has failed to acknowledge harm or misconduct within its ranks. Expected accountability rarely occurs. As a society, Americans have mostly had some faith in our government institutions and systems. No one thought anything was perfect. But we had a general faith in the institutions of our government. And now we’ve watched them really just be hollowed out and fail in ways that a lot of us didn’t think could happen. And that’s jarring to our collective psyche. We distrust our government. We feel like they do not care about us. And that is a betrayal because we vote. That’s what a democracy is supposed to be — we vote. Then you’re supposed to represent us and through that action we’re supposed to be counted and cared for and our voices are supposed to matter. Remember that democratic pact with we the people? The converse to betrayal trauma is ‘betrayal blindness.’ If folks voted for Trump and are happy with the way the world is going, they likely don’t feel betrayed by him or any of the systems in place. But for those who seem totally keen on the president’s decisions, there may be a level of betrayal blindness. Turning a blind eye and saying, ‘Oh no, Trump is doing great ... he’ll get there, they’ll get there.’ Denial as a survival mechanism. Long story short, lack of safety and betrayal go hand-in-hand. When you feel betrayed, you feel unsafe. The emotional impact is that there is no longer a shared agreement about what truth is, what accountability is, or even if there are still rules governing society. Americans are in a bad relationship with their government. America is psychologically unsettled. And it all trickles down from the top. Crazy is as crazy does.