Retaliation Gave Me Time. I Gave Them Hell.
- Sharisse Stephenson
- Oct 13
- 2 min read
They thought pushing me out would silence me.
Instead, they created their own worst nightmare.
⏳ The Joke
When the retaliation was at its peak, my sister said something that stuck with me:
“They should have just let you go back to work. If you were busy taking care of patients, you wouldn’t have time to be dragging them on social media and filing complaints everywhere.”
And she was right.
💥 The Backfire
By retaliating, pushing me out, and locking me out of the systems, they created their own worst nightmare:
They gave me something I hadn’t had in my entire adult life.
Time.
Time I used to:
Write.
File regulatory and legal complaints.
Connect with other survivors.
Tell the story they never wanted told.
Every hour they tried to bury me, I used to build something louder.
✍🏽 Discovering My Voice
Medicine kept me busy — always moving, always giving.
Retaliation forced me to stop.
And in that stillness, I found something I didn’t even know I had:
A voice sharper than they expected.
A wry, sarcastic sense of humor that let me roast their mess publicly without breaking a sweat.
A style of storytelling that turned what they meant for harm into a platform for accountability.
They took my clinic, but they gave me a pen — and I learned how to use it like a scalpel.
💥 The Backfire
By retaliating, pushing me out, and locking me out of the systems, they created their own worst nightmare:
They gave me something I hadn’t had in my entire adult life.
🤡 The Irony
Now I get disability insurers in my DMs saying:
“Please message us. We’re sorry you’re not happy with your experience.”
All because the people who should have known better thought they could silence me.
The irony? I’m louder now than I ever was with a medical title.
🪞 The Lesson
Retaliation is supposed to break you down, isolate you, and make you disappear.
But sometimes, retaliation backfires.
Sometimes it creates the very thing it was meant to destroy.
They gave me time.
And I gave them hell.
💥 Join the Movement
If this resonates with you — you’re not alone.
🔥 Follow the Phoenix Advocacy Network to connect with others speaking out against retaliation.
📣 Share your story so no one fights this battle in silence.
🕊️ Use your voice — because the louder we get, the less they can ignore us.
They tried to erase me. Instead, I became a headline.
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