The sexual abuse I experienced was denied and covered-up. But now, almost four-thousand people on YouTube have listened to the testimony of what happened to me as a child, and 23,000 people to the testimony of my friend Aria — both in English and in French.
We've also received hundreds of supportive comments on Reddit for exposing the crimes of the British Crown, and for exposing Crown-run child abuse camps, and exposing the similarity of these camps to Epstein's Island.
What does it mean to be heard?
A major part of the trauma a child experiences when being sexually abused is that they have no-one else to verify their reality. Abusers rely on destabilizing and confusing the child's perception of the world around them. Abusers take a child's energy, their trust and, most importantly, their reality.
But speaking out can return our reality to us. It can bring the survivor back to life. It has brought me back to life.
Just as holocaust-deniers attempt to re-write the reality of survivors' experiences in concentration camps; so to does society often attempt to re-write the experiences of sexually-abused children. However, when a survivor chooses, as an adult, to finally speak out, the act of telling the truth about abuse is essential to the healing process. It is the point at which what was taken from the child is returned to the adult: Their voice.
Why speak out? Isn't it safer to keep quiet?
Although, as a survivor, it feels safer to keep quiet, each of us who keeps quiet makes the world a more dangerous place: Both for ourselves and for others.
Many of us expect the world to react to us now as it did when we were kids. But the world has changed. You can see from the support survivors receive here on Steemit, and on Reddit, that there are more people than ever willing to listen to, and to share, your experiences of abuse.
We no longer have to settle for friendships where we cannot talk about our pasts. We no longer have to tolerate the shadows of abuse in those around us who self-medicate with alcohol, workaholism, passing-fashions or material trinkets. The exit is there for anyone willing to step through the doors.
In breaking our silence; we break free.
You can hear my testimony in this video here:
And Aria's here:
