Andrea Dunlop

And you talked about what you wish someone had done when you were a child.

What about during that period?

What would have helped you get safely out of that situation once you were no longer a child?

Yeah, no, and I don't think it's, you know, the purpose of sort of asking you about that is not about your personal regrets or what have you.

I mean, I think it's really healthy that you take accountability for your actions.

I think that's appropriate.

And I think that that framing for people and their understanding of this story is

It is really important because I think if people are projecting what they themselves might have been like at 24, right?

Like when I was 24, I was in my, you know, first job in New York City after graduating college when I was 22 and had had, you know, all kinds of like healthy support systems and was encouraged to be independent by my parents and had all kinds of experiences with peers that developed, you know.

It's like just like all of those things.

are purposefully kept from Munchausen by proxy survivors in the vast majority of cases, in many cases, you know, especially like sort of the cases on the extreme ends.

They're not in school.

They're not allowed to have relationships with peers.

They're not allowed to have romantic relationships and develop all of those things and try things and fail and develop a sense of independence.

And they're often told, you know, which I believe you were in your case,

You'll never live an independent life.

You'll always need me.

And you're going to die young.

And so that's like they create a very purposeful terror of the outside world.

So the expectation that you could just leave I think is just an absolute misunderstanding of the –