These stories are important, because it’s not the same story that people have come to expect about a man abusing a child. They’re the kind of stories that remind us that abusers come in all variations, and we should not assume that children are necessarily safe because the person they are with doesn’t “look” like the type.
There is no “type”.
Holby City is a long running, soap-style hospital drama that runs almost without a break all year round – currently in “season” 13. The end of the episode from 2nd August 2011 introduced Andy, an old school friend of a regular character, Dr Greg Douglas, who disclosed sexual abuse at the hands of a soccer…
There is a lot to consider in the article linked below, including how childhood trauma is often missed because we don’t talk about it, and how later issues in adulthood aren’t therefore being properly diagnosed. I encourage you to read it all, but I wanted to focus on this quote: “Megan says despite the common…
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.
So, someone like me, a middle-aged, professional, white male, can talk about struggling and get encouragement, pointed to good resources that are affordable for me, and there’s hope that I’ll get better. Someone living near poverty will say the same thing, and we start looking at whether they should have their kids removed from the home or how we can keep them away from a “safe” society.
It gets worse if they are not white and/or have a more serious mental health issue.
That’s not right. Everyone deserves quality mental health care. We shouldn’t divide who gets the care and who doesn’t based on what kind of mental health issue they have or who they are. That’s no way to solve this issue.
Look, we know that untreated mental health issues impact people’s lives in many ways. Would the lack of treatment at 20 for bipolar make a huge difference in lifetime income? Of course, it would impact the ability to even finish college successfully and that would then continue to impact things significantly. Would the need to take leaves of absence or go to work every day with depression and no access to help for that cause you to be less successful? Again, statistically, I think that would be obvious that it happens more times than not.
Apologies for the delay today, looks like there may be some technical difficulties with getting the post automatically from Diigo to here again! Psychological effects of bullying can last years Shattering myths about child sexual abuse 1in6 Thursday: Secondary Survivors Abusive parents: What do grown children owe the mothers and fathers who made their childhood…
