Dozens of people have contacted the BBC about abuse they suffered as children after four ex-footballers spoke out on the Victoria Derbyshire Programme.
This fact is so important. As a survivor, you are not the only one. The statistics do not lie, there are other survivors all around us. Here are just a few of the stories of abuse in youth sports in the UK.
Nathan from DadWagon sent me a note today to let me know about an interview they did on the site with Joel Johnson. Joel is a gadget geek, and has worked on such well-known blogs as Gizmodo, and BoingBoing. Recently, he posted on his personal site about having grown up a victim of sexual abuse…
When we picture the disorder, we often see a returned soldier, usually male, wrestling with emotional scars from the battlefield. In reality, one out of every nine suffers is female. Women are twice as likely to experience PTSD as men. Child abuse, sexual assault, rape, a physical attack, and being a part of or witnessing…
So yes, some of these conversations will be difficult, but believe me, the conversation with your adult kids about the abuse they suffered as children without you knowing about it, will be a lot harder. I’ve had that conversation with my parents in my 20’s. I’m sure they wished they didn’t have to have that.
It took me a long time to be comfortable with what happened. Most of that was internal, the embarrassment of being the guy who had public mental health issues and spent a long time in therapy, and trying to build a new life. Part of it was also watching people be uncomfortable in my presence. I didn’t have a choice about who knew about it, and I learned to embrace it as part of my story. That didn’t happen immediately.
How about just saying no to that pressure and making gift-giving about why we give gifts in the first place, to show someone that we care about them and value having them in our life?
That seems less stressful and isn’t limited to the end of December. I bet people would value a gift giving any time of year, and I bet giving it will give you a happiness boost, too.
