Most of the time, we don’t know what people are dealing with, but even when we do know, they may react to trauma and stress in ways that don’t make sense to us.
That’s life. That’s being human; being mature means accepting and being comfortable with it – not trying to fill in all the blanks yourself.
I get it. Punishing child abusers is an easy public opinion win. No one wants to punish abusers less. As survivors, though, we must balance that with what is best for the child. Testifying in a child abuse trial is a traumatic experience as it is. We shouldn’t be asking kids to take responsibility for taking the life of their abuser on top of that or spend the rest of their lives knowing that someone died because they spoke up. Nor should we be arming abusers with another way to manipulate kids into staying silent.
We should focus on what is best for a survivor’s healing so they can have a life after abuse because that is possible.
When I wrote about watching Athlete A last week, I mentioned the fact that the win-at-all-costs mentality of USA gymnastics blinded the organization to the fact that girls were being abused right under their noses, and played a role in their lack of response to allegations. They had one guiding quest, winning gold medals, and…
As you know if you’ve spent much time around here, I am an advocate for self-care. We simply have to set some time aside to care for ourselves, to re-energize ourselves, and do what is necessary for our own mental health at times. We even, sometimes, need to stay away from people who would sabotage…
Last week, I spent my time in Washington DC at a legal tech conference. Obviously, that has nothing to do with this blog,, that conference is all part of my day job working in a law firm. But, one thing that is comparable is what I call the “conference bubble”, and the risk it carries…
Last night I had the opportunity to attend an event on the campus of LSU and hear Aly Raisman, Olympic gold medalist, and sexual abuse survivor, share her story with students. I wanted to recap some of what she had to say as a survivor in the spotlight, both because of her athletic fame, but…
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