Sharing – Carrying heavy secrets alone: sexual trauma disclosure in boys and men
We shouldn’t act surprised when claims of abuse are revealed many years after the act. That’s not evidence that the claim is false; it’s just the norm.
We shouldn’t act surprised when claims of abuse are revealed many years after the act. That’s not evidence that the claim is false; it’s just the norm.
Being in prison is a traumatic experience in and of itself. Experiencing violence, witnessing death, sexual assault, etc., are additional traumas. We know for a fact that the higher the number of traumatic events that occur in our lives, the higher the rates of mental health issues. Yet, when it comes to prisoners, we seem not to care. We joke about violence and sexual assault in prison. We do nothing to combat corruption and violence among people who work in prisons, and we cut programs aimed at helping people adjust once outside of prison.
Again, I’ll say it. You can’t solve the problems that exist and create risks for traumatized children when you don’t acknowledge the trauma. How can someone dealing with discrimination, hate, poverty, etc., get assistance when we won’t recognize that those things exist?
The central question of the article below is a good one: Why Do victims of nonsexual violent crimes usually involve authorities while most rape survivors remain silent? Most of the article is about adult sexual assault, but she points out that children who are sexually abused face this same question for similar reasons. Those reasons…
But then I got to thinking. I’ve talked about being a sexual abuse survivor and how it was a male who abused me. What I haven’t talked about and haven’t considered for myself because the incidents are overshadowed by the years of sexual abuse are the occasions when I was sexually victimized without my consent by women.