184. Hijacked: Cassie Ventura’s Testimony and the Neuroscience of Survival

In this episode, we'll be talking about Cassie Ventura and trauma. Cassie is someone the world first met beside one of the most powerful names in music and business. From the outside, everything looked glamorous, even like something to aspire to. But what unfolded behind closed doors was something much darker. As Cassie bravely took the stand years later, now a mother and no longer silent, she revisited the pain she suffered and the years it took to reclaim her voice. We're going to go through her lawsuit from 2023, her testimony in May of 2025, what abuse really does to the brain, and why the question shouldn’t be “Why didn’t she leave?” but “What kept her from feeling like she could?”Connect with Paige:Instagram: instagram.com/reverietruecrime TikTok: tiktok.com/@paige.elmore Facebook: facebook.com/reverietruecrime Twitter/X: twitter.com/reveriecrimepod BlueSky: reverietruecrime.bsky.social Intro and Outro by Jahred Gomes: https://www.instagram.com/jahredgomes_officialSources:https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/diddy-cassie.pdfhttps://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1251&context=intuitionhttps://www.domesticshelters.org/articles/health/how-trauma-rewires-the-brainhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091302216300139#s0005https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/sean-diddy-combs-trial-live-updates/?id=121656142https://www.janiceklaw.com/blog/how-sexual-abuse-affects-the-brain/https://www.womenagainstabuse.org/education-resources/learn-about-abuse/types-of-domestic-violencehttps://psychcentral.com/health/effects-of-emotional-abuse#brain-impactshttps://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-bad-looks-good/202107/why-do-domestic-violence-victims-return-to-abusershttps://psychcentral.com/blog/liberation/2017/10/long-term-narcissistic-abuse-can-cause-brain-damage#4https://dana.org/article/the-abused-brain/https://www.businessinsider.com/sean-diddy-combs-trial-striking-revelations-to-know-2025-5https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/sean-diddy-combs-trial-cassie-ventura-lawyers-live-updates-rcna206807https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/cassie-ventura/index.htmlhttps://www.verywellmind.com/the-cycle-of-sexual-abuse-22460https://people.com/escort-hired-diddy-alleged-freak-offs-speaks-out-message-for-cassie-exclusive-11744158https://www.charliehealth.com/post/the-long-term-effects-of-narcissistic-abusehttps://deadline.com/2025/05/cassie-ventura-sean-diddy-combs-trial-1236395063/https://cptsdfoundation.org/2020/06/22/the-neuroscience-of-narcissism-and-narcissistic-abuse/https://www.npr.org/2025/05/13/nx-s1-5396851/diddy-trial-cassie-sean-combshttps://www.shorelinerecoverycenter.com/how-domestic-abuse-affects-the-brain/https://apnews.com/article/diddy-trial-sex-trafficking-cassie-testimony-69c7a6ad766103e39c4f7f35df841205https://www.verywellmind.com/effects-of-narcissistic-abuse-5208164https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/sean-diddy-combs-cassie-ventura-trial/https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/05/13/arts/sean-combs-diddy-trial-cassiehttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/may/16/cassie-ventura-sean-diddy-combs-trialhttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj42nvrkgznohttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy71k1pee5ohttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9931748/https://www.harborchc.org/blog/domestic-violence-and-the-impacts-on-your-physical-and-mental-health#:~:text=The%20two%20main%20changes%20to,for%20memory%20and%20regulating%20emotions.https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1238225255/domestic-violence-is-now-recognized-as-a-leading-cause-of-traumatic-brain-injuryhttps://biausa.org/public-affairs/media/domestic-violence-as-a-cause-of-tbihttps://www.allianceforhope.org/family-