stop sexual abuse

What is Sexual Abuse?


Sexual abuse is when someone with less power is tricked, trapped, coerced, অথবা bribed into any type of sexual experience. Power imbalance may result from the perpetrator’s age, size, position, experience, অথবা authority and includes kissing, fondling, being forced to touch the abuser’s genitals, anal, oral অথবা vaginal sex, and non-contact acts such as exhibitionism, exposure to pornography, voyeurism অথবা sexual মতামত অথবা looks.

If, as a child, আপনি experienced anything that felt sexual অথবা yucky with someone who had আরো power than you, আপনি were abused.

It was abuse:
■Even...

This is a poem about how I was sold for money দ্বারা my own mom. I'm ten years old and finally ran away and got help. I let it go three years. And now I'm in foster care.

Truth

© Kari

Shut your mouth and listen to what I have to say,
I'm going to take আপনি back to that one specific day.
I was laying in বিছানা alone while listening to আপনি and him talk on the phone.
You said, "Well if they have the money I don't see why not,
She'll be ready দ্বারা 9 o'clock"
You came in and ব্যক্ত it's time to get up,
Shower well and I'll make আপনি pretty with make up.
In a pretty white dress and hair done to match,
You told me I'm...

"Rape's not something where আপনি just go, "Well, get over it" অথবা "Believe in প্রণয় and peace, my child, and it'll all be over." Well, fuck you, that isn't the answer. It's a great thought, OK, but আপনি can go and stick crystals up your butt and get on with it. I'm all for প্রণয় and peace, but that's not the side I work on. If somebody would talk about it, অথবা worse, joke about it, I would be ready to kill. That's not healing. It was a very long time after that before I was able to be with anyone again. And it has never been the same as it was before"


"Something comes up like bubbles to the surface,...

Christina: When I talk about my childhood sexual abuse, I see it as an opportunity to validate my inner child. As I reveal the horror of what happened to her, I’m inviting her out of the shadows of fear and shame. She’s accustomed to other’s dismissive denial, but telling the truth gives her the honor she deserves.

Bethany: I remember my childhood nightmare of screaming with all my might but no noise would come out. Holding in the secret abuse is just like that. I was constantly screaming inside but no one heard me. Finally, I made myself heard. I first began sharing when I was nineteen....

My whole life, (I'm 17), I've had to live with the abuse expressed in this poem. And for a very long time, I believed I was everything she ব্যক্ত I was. Until I met God. I learnt a lot আরো about myself and who I could be and deserved to be and finally left. It's been almost a বছর now, and life couldn't be any happier for me!

Couldn't Be আরো Wrong

© May Winter

You told me that প্রণয় wasn't meant for me
That I was the burden that everyone didn't need.
You let me be violated, stripped of all my pride
Took no acknowledgment of the hurt I tried to hide.
You looked at me in disgust whenever I passed...

I hate blood and gore, but I প্রণয় watching medical shows. When they প্রদর্শনী mangled flesh, I have to cover my eyes. It’s hard to imagine all the pain the person is suffering and even if they can be saved, the struggle that recovery requires. Sometimes I think it would be easier to let the person die because I don’t understand how someone could possibly recover and have a real life after having their body so torn. But the doctors don’t think like that; they understand the healing process and they’ve seen what their skillful work plus the restorative abilities of the human body can accomplish....

Does time heals all wounds? I’ve heard many survivors of abuse try to soothe themselves দ্বারা saying, “Soon, this will pass.” It does take time to heal—and lots of it. But time alone won’t repair the soul mutilation of abuse anymore than it will repair the destruction caused দ্বারা an earthquake. Sexual abuse ravages the depths of your being and to be restored, you’ll need to face each wounded area. Healing takes great quantities of perseverance, courage, strength and yes, time.

Recognizing the Abuse

The first step in beginning to heal from any kind of abuse is to recognize and acknowledge...