Important Considerations

• It is very common to stumble across misinformation in the OEA community. Be critical with all of the information you gather. Questions to ask yourself to determine crediblity include:
  • Do the sources you’ve found cite references?
  • Is the author making biased or discriminatory statements?
  • Does the author have professional credentials to be writing about OEA?
• Do not compare your trauma to that of (other) OEA survivors. Their trauma is not "worse" or "more valid." Everyone’s trauma is different, and everyone’s reactions to trauma will be different. Comparing trauma only engenders community resentment.
• Learning about OEA will be emotionally taxing. Do not ignore your body/mind's signals to take breaks and participate in self-care. (It is a good idea to pre-emptively take breaks before you reach this point.)

Interacting with Survivors

• Never ask a programmed survivor how they were programmed. Do not ask to know their program triggers.
• Unless you are a survivor’s health care provider, it is not your job to limit their access to educational materials about their trauma. If they tell you they can handle doing research on OEA, trust them. They know themselves better than you.
• Never out someone as an OEA survivor without their permission. You could unknowingly put them in danger.
• Do not dictate what information a survivor should or should not share about their experience UNLESS (a) it puts them in danger or (b) they are spreading misinformation. Do not force survivors to share anything about their experience or demand that they must list their diagnoses, trauma history, etc. Similarly, do not shut survivors down when they are safely sharing their story.
• To OEA survivors, Never share personal information about another survivor with your group, especially if you are physically in but mentally out (PIMO) of your group. This puts other survivors’ safety at risk.

Validity and Stigma

• Never ask an OEA survivor if what they went through counts as “extreme.” Many survivors are uncomfortable qualifying their abuse as "extreme." We only do so here because that is the official language from the ISSTD.
• Never tell a survivor that their memories are fake or that they are faking.
• OEA survivors are not your theraputic mentors. They cannot tell you if the abuse you survived actually happened or if it counts as OEA. You must make that decision with your care team, or by yourself.
• Don’t immediately bring up the Satanic Panic, Stranger Things, or other cultural misrepresentations of OEA when survivors are opening up to you. Simply listen.