I’ll be okay. It felt good to get this out.
If you know you shouldn’t be watching or listening: DON’T
you can reach me at dontmesswiththetree@gmail.com if you want to help
As a reminder, for the financially capable, I have a legal case that is a shoe-in settlement with the right law team in terms of disability/trans rights that I cannot find a pro-bono lawyer for. I would obviously make that worth it to anyone. This is my best email about it yet:
Greetings,My name is Daphne Garrido. I am a transgender woman in Washington State recovering from a substance-related psychotic disorder. I am looking for an attorney willing to evaluate whether what happened to me raises disability or civil-rights claims, particularly under the ADA, Section 504, Washington law, or Olmstead’s community-integration protections.Before this happened, I was an Equipment Manager for Compass Group on Microsoft’s campus, earning approximately $93,000 a year.In late 2024, after overusing blue lotus flower, I entered a prolonged psychosis. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at Connections Kirkland and referred to Mindful Therapy Group, but my condition was misunderstood and I continued without the diagnosis or support I actually needed.By October 2025, I was deteriorating badly enough that I voluntarily gave up custody of my daughter to seek help. The following month, an old friend and social worker—someone I had been frantically contacting for help while psychotic—sought a protective order against me. I spiraled further and eventually left my job because I knew I needed treatment.I initially received unemployment benefits, which barely covered rent and food. I could not afford private insurance and could not find a workable path to psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. At the same time, I encountered social-service systems that required documentation of a disability I could not obtain without access to care. I was severely ill, visibly unraveling online, and repeatedly asking people and systems around me for help.I later received another protective order from a former high-school acquaintance in Wisconsin whom I had also repeatedly contacted while psychotic and seeking help.My former employer then challenged my unemployment benefits. Without an adequate diagnosis documenting what was happening to me, my benefits were revoked, my appeal was unsuccessful, and I was ordered to repay more than $9,000.Without that income, I became homeless in April 2026.After moving through crisis centers and shelters, I eventually reached a tiny-home village. Ironically, becoming homeless and losing my income finally made me eligible for Washington Apple Health/Medicaid and gave me access to the psychiatric care I had been trying to obtain. Harborview has now formally diagnosed my psychosis and considers me to be in recovery.The consequences have been enormous. I remain homeless. I have not seen my daughter since January 2026. Divorce proceedings occurred without my participation, and the resulting orders require supervised visitation that I cannot afford. I also still face the $9,000+ unemployment repayment demand.There is a transgender discrimination component as well. During my illness, people close to me said that I had caused or deserved my condition because I underwent hormone replacement therapy. I believe disability and transgender status affected how I was perceived and treated, including within my family, while I was severely impaired and trying to get help.I also have an unusually extensive contemporaneous record. Beginning in December 2025, I video-journaled nearly every day and published much of it at ofdarknessandlight.net. The recordings document my mental state, deterioration, repeated efforts to obtain help, and many of the events described above. I also have medical records, unemployment and appeal records, employment information, court and protective-order records, and homelessness documentation.I understand that suffering serious harm does not necessarily mean there is a viable legal claim. What troubles me most is the systemic sequence: I was too ill to function, could not access adequate psychiatric care or obtain the diagnosis needed to establish my disability, lost the income keeping me housed, became homeless, and only then became eligible for the health coverage that finally allowed me to receive diagnosis and treatment.I am currently without income and cannot retain counsel on an hourly basis. I am seeking pro bono, contingency, statutory-fee, public-interest, or other appropriate representation. I would be deeply grateful if you could evaluate whether these circumstances present viable disability, civil-rights, community-integration, or related claims. If this is outside your practice, even a referral to someone better positioned to help would mean a great deal.Thank you for reading this and considering my situation.Sincerely,Daphne Garrido
