Excerpts:
“ .. Wounded Souls: A Collection of Poems and Songs, and its companion spoken-word CD (by) Ingrid D. Johnson .. A Winnipeg-based artist .. Johnson’s first book, Little Black Butterfly in Iridescent Sunlight, came out four years ago. According to Ingrid, it was a catalyst for major personal life transformations. This meant honestly confronting friendships and relationships that were unhealthy and manipulative. “I feel my new poems reflect my struggle to forgive and let go of the past, ways the abuse affected my voice and sense of personal boundaries, and my spiritual struggle to overcome all the anger, loss, pain, resentment, bitterness and sadness I felt and expressed in my first book. This new book is more positive. It offers truth, hope, healing and inspiration instead of anger, venom, rage, profanity and bitterness.”
“my love for people who are hurting and lost is also an inspiration to write, and my anger towards people’s ignorance and lack of care for other victims and survivors drives me to speak up for the voiceless. I work with kids in care and [my] sincerest hope is that my words, my life and my story will inspire at least one of them to be a success.”
Ingrid offers the following advice to people who find themselves in sexually abusive situations and relationships: “You are not alone. When you are ready, tell your story and don’t stop telling it until someone listens and helps you to do something good to counteract it. Overcoming sexual abuse begins with surviving — coping — but you have to confront the abuse and learn from its impact on you in order to overcome it before you can help others.”
An interesting and well-written editorial, worth reading the whole piece. Here is an excerpt:
".. Once again, the adult's self-interest is being used to rationalize treating proven child sex abuse as though it is trivial, as though it leaves no lasting mark on a child's psyche or soul. Hollywood's defense of Polanski is no different than the Catholic Bishops' shifting of child predators from parish to parish. Both are serving reputation and power at the expense of basic child safety. Polanski's girls have been the fodder of the "great artist." What do a few statutory rapes matter, when you have the man who produced "Rosemary's Baby"? .."
".. Messages such as “can’t you see how much I’m sacrificing for you” were designed to keep you feeling guilty so you could be controlled more easily. If you had a parent who said that to you, know that it is the job of a loving parent to make sacrifices on behalf of their child to ensure their child’s needs are met. It’s not your job to feel guilty because your parent couldn’t handle the adult responsibilities of parenting and the stress that goes with it .."
".. what does it really mean to be a "survivor?" Does it mean a person is free from all the damage done to them at such a young age? No it doesn't. All it really means is they have stopped burying it and denying it and keeping silent about it, and have finally gathered up the courage to speak out against it .."
".. a group of clergy sex abuse victims, an offending priest and others affected by the Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis .. decided to have the session professionally videotaped … Their collaboration has produced "The Healing Circle," an hourlong documentary on DVD that has caught the attention of some Catholic bishops and the lay committee that advises them on policy and training after the clergy sex abuse scandal .."
".. Moon Cussers tells of the true life journey of Wade Younger’s search for himself in order to find healing and resolution from his sexual childhood abuse … While Moon Cussers is certainly written to help the victims of sexual childhood abuse, sexual abuse victims rarely suffer alone. The complex emotional baggage often leads to other, more symptomatic, problems later in life including alcoholism, depression, and abusive behavior. The book peels back the layers of distrust, self-loathing, and vulnerability to help victims and their loved ones understand the sources of these feelings .. "
".. Among female alcoholics, a strong association with major depression has been demonstrated. The relative risk for heavy drinking is 2.60 times greater in women with a history of depression as compared to women without a history of depressive disorder .. Women also have a higher incidence of premorbid anxiety disorders,42 and a greater severity of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms than do men with similar traumatic exposures .."
“.. The Respect MP said, in his column for the Daily Record, he had been abused by a school caretaker when he was 11 .. The Bethnal Green and Bow MP wrote: "I'm not saying the abuse has ruined my life or anything. I've had a happy life. But it did affect my life and not in a good way and neither in ways I care to rehearse before you. Every time a Soham murderer or a Dunblane Thomas Hamilton emerges, I die a little inside as I remember that dirty old man driven by the same perverted interest in sexually attacking kids ..”
“.. When we think of children who have been sexually abused, we think of fear, anger and violence. Most sexual abuse survivors talk of the terror and disassociation surrounding the abuse. Many still feel that way as adults and don’t enjoy sex now, even in a loving relationship. But there are those who have a more complicated story to tell. These survivors may have hated their abusers but experience an unspeakable shame over the fact that their bodies responded sexually to the abuse ..”
“.. DID entails a failure to integrate certain aspects of memory, consciousness and identity. Patients experience frequent gaps in their memory for their personal history, past and present. Patients with DID report having severe physical and sexual abuse, especially during childhood. The reports of patients with DID are often validated by objective evidence ..”
Free book available for download
Holistic Self-Care for Post Traumatic Stress and Dissociative Identity
By Dr Cindee Grace, naturopath
Can download from any of the following sites:
http://amyweintraub.com/HolisticSelfCareForPTS.pdf
www.amyweintraub.com/resources.htm
http://www.freedom-center.org/files/HolisticSelfCareforPTSD+DissociativeIdentity-CindeeGrace.pdf
http://veteransinfo.org/ptsd.html
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