Was there earlier trauma, too,
even in high school that was related to this type of thing?
So what happened to you in high school?
When I was a freshman,
and I was drugged and taken to a house and
You were raped again? Before, when I was 14.
That was the first time. Wow.
How old were you then? I was 14.
Oh, my Gosh.
Michelle, you work in the criminal justice system,
so have you done anything or taken any action,
because you know that one of the ways
that victims of sexual assault start to heal
and bring closure is by holding their perpetrator
accountable. Accountable.
Yes, ma'am. Holding them accountable.
And I've begged her, I even know who the guy is.
I found out who it was. Oh, my God.
From what she told me,
but I know she has to want to go forward,
and I begged her to let's go forward.
It does not matter.
She said, Mom, he told me if I told, he would kill you
and I can't have anyone hurting you.
But I told her it doesn't matter about me,
it matters what has happened to you.
Let's go forward. Oh, mom.
Yes, you are doing all of the right things
by telling her it's not about you,
but I find it really sad that both of your perpetrators
basically threatened the well being of you
and the people that you love
as a way to get you to keep quiet.
And Mom, you notice that a lot of behaviors were changing
around that time, right, Yes, ma'am, I did.
so what did you notice about her?
She withdrew, she started skipping class,
she was at a performing arts school at the time
and she wasn't being where she was supposed to be.
I mean, I saw my daughter change right before my eyes.
And all I could do was, that's when I started
to try to find help for her.
Good, good for you.
And at the time, trying to find
a therapist that was taking patients,
I worked at the state, I was in the system,
so I knew how to go about it.
I finally found a doctor for her to see,
a psychologist, then the psychologist referred us
to a neuro-psych doctor for her to have the testing,
so and then, the therapy.
Chelsey, can you tell us what the doctors told you?
They diagnosed me with ADHD and bipolar.
With bipolar disorder?
Chelsey, did you share the sexual assault
with the doctor, did you tell them
what had happened to you in high school?
I didn't because I knew the information
would be sent to my mom.
I didn't work that out with the therapist until I was 18.
One of the other diagnoses that I think you have now
is PTSD, and people dissociate from the things
that have happened to them to try to rebuild their identity,
but it comes back to haunt them.
Do you ever find that you're kind of just
almost dissociated from what's going on,
you don't really feel like you're there,
like things aren't really real?
Has that ever happened to you?
It did, it just now, I'm just now getting better with that
and what she doesn't know is that the go-go dancing
has something to do with it.
I was in performing arts all through high school
until I was about 18, 17, and I stopped doing that,
and I realized that what I love and what makes me feel good
is performing. Right.
Being in front of a crowd of people,
doing what I love to do makes me feel so good about myself.
Right. So when I got
into the go-go dancing, I got that feeling again.
It wasn't about the outfits,
I wasn't trying to like look sexy for guys or anything,
I felt what I felt on stage when I was performing.
You love to dance.