Hi Ossiana,

I was never trafficked, never enslaved, but I can certainly relate to much of what you have written here.

Our poverty was imposed by the short-sightedness and stupidity of “parents” who didn’t want us, and made sure, every day, that I was reminded of this fact.

The poverty starts from such an early age and it is indelibly marked upon the psyche of those so affected.

I tend to hoard food, usually dry cupboard staples and freezable items It seems endemic to the scarring of the squalor of material want that we should do so.

Even now, before I commenced upon my journey and was still in touch with certain toxic ‘sibs’, anything I got - such as a new set of headphones, an amazon kindle or something else; sure enough, the joy of a new thing was sucked away in a vacuum of malice and judgemental accusation about ‘wasting money’. It was usually followed up by taunts about “don’t expect me to bail you out”, though ironically, I spend a long, long time of my life needing ‘bailing out’, in which the NPD sociopath pointedly avoided ever trying to help me out.

I did not possess his easy, sociopathic aptitude for stealing, cheating and behaving dishonestly towards others. This is why he was “successful”, while I was the ostensible “loser”. The only difference is, I can be employed by corporate entities, whilst that one has to run his own Grift Circus to make ends meet.

There’s definitely an interconnect when poverty comes stalking to indelibly scar us.

I think this was a brilliant piece; thanks so much.