Catholic School CSA Investigation Begins
Technical problems prevented us from linking to a Daily Mail story about another investigation into child abuse at a Catholic school. You can find it on their website below:
– CBG
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Sharing – Sexual abuse: Why young males are often invisible victims
I grew up in a world where having my friends and other parents think I was gay seemed worse than just continuing to be abused. Think about that for a minute. Think about what we tell boys about being a man and how society reacts to men who share that they were sexually abused as a child? Is there anything about it that screams “Tell your story. We support you!”.
There are some small pockets of that online and in certain circles, but it’s going to also come with a lot of questions about why you didn’t fight, how you’re destined to now be an abuser, that you enjoyed it, etc.
Female victims of almost all ages will get asked about what they were wearing, how much they drank, etc. That’s wrong.
Male victims will get our own set of questions, mostly about why we didn’t fight, why we were so weak, are we gay? That’s equally as wrong.
Does Childhood Trauma Disrupt Our Storytelling Abilities?
I will admit, in healthcare, these two types of narrative incoherence could cause a problem. How would a medical professional move forward with a diagnosis when our response to the first question is to dump an overwhelming amount of possibly relevant, possibly not, information, or to dismiss any symptoms? It really would be difficult to know. We know that the folks who get to the quickest, and best, healthcare are the ones who come in with details like what is wrong, how long it’s been going on, what happened previously to an illness or injury, etc. Trauma survivors typically struggle with exactly that.
This is only one way where not being able to tell a story in a coherent, effective, way hurts survivors. It blocks us from legal proceedings, as I said before, and it blocks us from being understood by those closest to us quite often. So, if you really want to connect with others, and maybe get better healthcare, learn to tell stories. That’s how the world communicates. But, if you’re confronted with someone who is struggling to tell a coherent story, consider what kind of trauma they may be dealing with, and have a little patience.
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