Apparently there’s a billionaire building a three hundred million dollar ballroom while starving forty two million Americans. He was gifted the money for his ballroom by friends.

A lot of folks agree with his decision to cut these benefits saying things like:

Go fish! Aka, get a job ya lazy bum!

Need less! Minimalists love telling poor people to make their own sourdough bread and be more mindful about planning for a sustainable future.

Save more! Again, rich folks giving investment advice to generations of people born into modern day slavery. Skipping a latte day keeps the delulu away?

And here’s the problem no one is talking about: the psychotraumatology of complex trauma and systemic oppression.

Lemme break that down with some not so fun facts:

350 million Americans 

73 million Americans are under the age of 18

61.2 million Americans are over the age of 65

15.4 million American adults are struggling with a severe and persistent mental illness

Roughly 5 million American adults, the majority of whom are under the age of 65, are admitted to the ICU annually

1.8 million Americans are incarcerated

Nearly one million Americans are homeless -an 18% increase from 2020. Yes that’s a lot. The number has nearly doubled since 2017. 

50 million Americans are struggling with an active addiction

Roughly 47.2% of American adults, or 165 million people in this country have experienced 2 or more Adverse Childhood Experiences which implies that nearly half of the US population could qualify for a Complex Trauma diagnosis. 

That means a negative 22.4 million people are truly healthy, well and able to choose to work.

But, according to data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics there were 163.4 million employed people in the US as of August 2025.

And less than half of those workers earn an annual salary of $65k or more.

Why do these statistics matter?

Because it means less than half of us cannot afford the annual individual costs of being alive in this country in 2025.

The average monthly rent in America in 2025 is $1630. That’s almost $20k a year just for rent! That does not include a car payment, cell, internet, utilities, healthcare, food, clothes, pets, vacations, or wellness expenses like yoga classes, acupuncture, supplements, a gym membership and a sourdough starter kit; all the things dominant culture tell us we need if we want to heal our broken nervous systems and manifest the highest and best versions of our currently shitty, low vibe selves.

Why am I using $65k as a baseline? According to validated data the average monthly cost of living for a single adult in America is $4,641 a month which totals just over $55k a year (after taxes).

SNAP out of it!

As a licensed clinical professional with over twenty years experience treating complex trauma across the lifespan, while healing from my own complex trauma, I can tell you: there is no such thing as snapping out of a dysregulated nervous system.

It takes the average human body one hour to return to homeostasis after a split second of activation.

This means, if you see a spider and jump, your cortisol and adrenaline levels spike, inflammatory biomarkers go up and your nervous system will need an entire hour of safety in order for those stress hormones and inflammation to recede back to zero.

For those of us who experienced compound or ongoing stressors throughout childhood, we require…permanent vacations essentially. But realistically, a drastic reduction in our exposure to all forms of stress, which includes chronic financial crisis.

Our current reality is ignoring the epidemic of inequality which is waging war on every cell in our bodies.

A living wage for all workers is the first, most vital step in restoring safety and thereby transforming health.

Why? Because having enough money to meet basic needs including housing, food, clothing, healthcare including mental healthcare, regulates neural pathways rooted in survival. We cannot begin to successfully re-parent ourselves in the absence of financial stability.

Therefore, publicly funded programs that support individuals in meeting basic needs are essential.

79 % of SNAP households include at least one of the following: a child, an elderly individual, or a non-elderly individual with a disability.  

My best, educated guess regarding the other 21% of SNAP recipients is that many folks are demoralized by the deplorable offerings of the often deplorable jobs available to individuals who’ve been deprived of support and access to higher education, or don’t have access to transportation, or live in areas where there simply is not enough availability of any kind of work, or some horrible combination of all of the above.

I did not SNAP out of poverty. I abused and neglected myself for roughly twenty years after being abused for roughly twenty years. There was no break between the abuse from others and the abuse from myself. And for billions of people, too many traumas do not end in childhood.

I would never advise anyone to undertake my path out of poverty because it was inhumane. I wrote my book to reveal exactly why it is insane and beyond cruel to suggest to anyone living in those conditions, while existing in a body that had endured complex trauma, to do what I did, with considerable exceptions and big footnotes on the benefits of faith and self discipline, not to be confused with Bigfoot.

I wrote it as a call to action, starting with getting real about what it costs to afford a life worth living.

$14.1 trillion dollars annually in economic burden…Google said.

Is that what we are? An economic burden?

How much does compassion cost?

Roses are free

Anyway,…all wrote out for tonight.

Two things:

What is the cost of complex trauma, besides sleep, dignity, self-worth, sanity and life itself?

You can find my book here

And,

Dear Rich and Otherwise Delusional Boot-Strappers trying to shove Jesus, thoughts, prayers, food banks, moral lectures and budgeting tips down our throat: SNAP OUT OF IT

Love you 😘

In other news, hello Spicy Buddha aka perimenopausal me. 😂 Thank you so very much to all of you who’ve been generously supporting and sharing and posting about the book since September. I’m very grateful to you. Love wins, no matter what.