Similar Posts
Sharing – Tearing down taboos: Tackling abuse in the Muslim community
I appreciate what the author of this article, Zahra Awaiz-Bilal, is saying. Each group that we belong to has it’s own culture, it’s own rules, and it’s own challenges when it comes to dealing with abuse, but it’s especially important to recognize this as well, across all of those cultures: “The plethora of news stories…
Sharing – How to Develop a Strong Sense of Self
One of the struggles that I had as an abuse survivor, and one that I know other survivors have talked about, is defining who we are. Take everyone else away, remove all the ways we define ourselves based on our relationships with others – son, daughter, spouse, brother, sister, parent, coworker, friend, employee, boss, etc.
Who are you? As I often say, when you’re too busy trying to survive the chaos of an abusive childhood, you don’t get the guidance that would help figure this out. So we exist in these relationships with family, friends, and romantic partners, and we don’t know who we are outside of how they see us.
Link – When the abuser is a child, too
There is a lot to digest in this article, so I’m not going to pull out a quote, instead I’m going to simply suggest you go read the entire thing. As you do though, I think there are two important points, controversial as they may seem. Kids who are sexually inappropriate with other kids are…
Sharing – Male Survivors Of Sexual Abuse Struggle To Find Treatment
When I was undergoing treatment with a therapist, she actually tried to get me involved in group sessions. The sexual abuse survivor group I attended a few times was not for male survivors, it was for any survivor, and I just happened to be the only male in the group. It didn’t last long. To get any help for me, as a male survivor, I had to kind of be wedged into programs and tools that were designed for female survivors. It still helped me, but it could have been better, and might not have helped a lot of men. I do believe it’s gotten slightly better over the years, but only slightly. It’s still a huge problem. We still don’t have any real idea of how many male survivors there are, or how to make resources available to them. Partly because we don’t talk about it enough, and partly because when men do talk about it, they aren’t listened to.
We pay the price for that. Those survivors grow up, and struggle, on their own, with mental health and other issues. They don’t feel safe coming forward, and they are often made to feel weak if they even consider asking for help.
That’s no way for anyone to go through life.
Link – Teen Angst Stereotype Prevented Me From Recognizing My Mental Illness
I find Erin’s story interesting because I think it is easy to look at a teenager, especially one who’s not exhibiting the signs we saw on the TV news story about teenagers and drugs/depression, and assume “it’s just a phase”. It might not be: “I clung to the idea that mental illness came for other…
