THE MASKED ABUSER

Our idea and belief of a thing can keep us hostage if we aren't willing to holistically understand it.

This is the reason Mama Fatima did not think Fatima could be depressed. Depression, to her, is exclusively for people who either suffer a severe lack, or physical violence.

Little wonder she felt shocked when Dr. Osita sighed and informed her that Fatima would need therapy to address the frequent bouts of PTSD she suffered due to domestic violence.

Again, domestic violence has no place with the affluent and as such, isn't a term to be associated with well off children like Fatima. Hence, the woman's bewilderment at the doctor's choice of words.

Having worked so hard to provide all the requisite material needs for a growing child, her innumerable attempts to grasp the reason Fatima never visited for holidays and Ramadan had defied logic, and this greatly troubled her.

Growing up, Fatima was an extroverted and exuberant child who, sadly, slowly, and for reasons unknown, snowballed into an introverted, terse and unusually reserved teenager. She would, from that time onward, struggle with socializing.

In the years that followed, this unusual trait missed all the traction it should have gotten, until December of last year when Fatima became dangerously anorexic and was soon diagnosed with PTSD which had resulted from...

You guessed it right.

Mama Fatima's oral and less abrasive method of emotional abuse, her sophisticated intimidation wrapped in rash displays of 'motherly affection,' the sudden spate of comparisons between Fatima and her peers, and the constant diatribes of loving words laced with hateful threats and humiliation left an unintended consequence.

She never stopped loving and caring for Fatima with her lorry-load of emotional torture. Not once did she. She continued. She continued right up until, overwhelmed, the girl's mind could take no more and broke.

No. Mama Fatima is not wicked. She is just a Loving Caring Abuser.