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By Julie Gregory
Being Trapped
The Perception Of Our Parents
Grew up in Southern Ohio
Sickened is her autobiography
Studied psychiatry at the University of Sheffield, England
Also author of My Father’s Keeper
Has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The BBC Worldwide, People Magazine, Dateline, 60 Minutes, and Lifetime.
"Sometimes clear over to other counties [we'd go] to try out new doctors who would do the tests Mom was starting to read about in waiting rooms" (Gregory 51).
Julie's mother was so deep into her disorder that she'd go from doctor to doctor, soliciting tests and exams for her daughter. She became pathological about it.
"She pins me to the trunk of the car with a glare. 'You are going to tell him what's wrong with you, what's happening to your heart. You understand me? Sharp chest pain. Shortness of breath. You got it?'" (Gregory 114).
This demonstrates how Julie's mother would force Julie to embellish and/or completely falsify information about her health so that the doctor would think that she is sick.
"That night in the kitchen, Mom caught me by the hair and slung me to the floor. Dad grabbed both angles of the countertop for leverage and, hauling his leg back again and again, sank steel-toed boots into the hollow of my belly" (Gregory 155).
Julie's parents were clearly physically abusive, in addition to emotionally and psychologically. This is how Julie's parents punished her for attempting to become emancipated.
1."I am a gazelle in slow motion, leaping down the hallway through distant time and space. I lunge toward them, and Mom screams swollow her me. Danny flings himself around Dad's legs his forehead pressing into Dad's groin for leverage, as he beats his little fists on Dad's belly" (Gregory 81).
2. A country summer in Oho is just about one of the lushest, sexiest things you could ask for. It makes any girl want to traipse around in cutoff Daisy Duke shorts and a bikini top. Greenery gone berserk, vining all over everything, pregnant with shoots or seeds just bursting out of every split-open pod and juicy stalks" (Gregory 136).
3. My house of mirrors is a ramshackle farmhouse that sits just a mile from the hospital where I was operated one. The rent is next to nothing. There's no heat upstairs. Even though I live in the city, the house is isolated, surrounded by woods, sitting on the dead end of a street, its foundation sinking slowly into the dense ravine below" (Gregory 201).
1. "You got the count of three, girl. One, TWO-" He swipes out my arm and I break, dashing out the patio screen door, leaping off the deck, running around the pool. He charges after me and catches my weak wrist. I jerk back from my own momentum and he flings me in the grass, flailing the belt over my arms, my legs, my head, my face" (Gregory 73)
2. On Christmas morning, Julie's mom screeched through their trailer. She held a gun up to her head and and threatened to commit suicide.
3. "I slip next to her and she sinks her claws into my thigh. She leans over like she's telling me a secret, keeping her face relaxed. She twists a hunk of my leg and breathes mean in my ear. She clamps my elbow between her thumb and forefinger and steers me up to the reception desk" (Gregory 62).
1. "How did this happen? They're going to cut me. My breath quickens, my eyes fixate in horror. 'You, you can't do this to me,' my voice speaks by itself. 'You can't do it..my mother is making it up!'..I jump to the back corner of the bed, clutching the covers up to my neck with one hand.." (Gregory 122).
2. "I cannot speak. The wires in my brain are black and fried. I cannot find languag, although my hands are desperately feelingin teh dark for what it is I've lost" (Gregory 90).
3. "I kept saying over and over, 'Got to stay cool, got to not let my face show it, got to act normal, be upset and surprised.' Mom was waiting for me in the drive" (Gregory 161).
"And Danny and I used a bucket for a toilet while she traipsed through Mexico with Barbwire Boby. And Dad had a satellite dish installed and a washer and dryer delivered right to the little swing door of the pull-behind camper when his own kids didn't even have a pot to piss in" (Gregory 186).
This quote shows what happened when her parents abandoned her and her little brother. In addition to abusive, her parents have also been neglectful.
"Mom pulls out a new book of matches and carefully bends back the cover to expose two fresh red rows of the minipops she's been giving me for as long as I can remember. My mouth waters when I see their shimmery crimson tips. The first one is always the best, and I pluck it out and get it fast on my tongue, waiting for the metallic zolt to rush my taste buds" (Gregory 20).
This quote is important because it shows how big of an impact Julie's parents had on her. They convinced their child that matches were a treats to eat, like lollipops. This shows that Julie's parents are incredibly bad parents and they do not think about if their child gets harmed by eating matches.