Take Your Power Back: Healing Lessons, Tips, and Tools for Abuse Survivors
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Take your power back, Evelyn M. Ryan
If âIâd been looking for âthis kinda bookâ, for so longâ sounds familiar – this could be the answer! Both suggested + reviewed by others in our league, here are some short examples of what it contains:
âAs you discover and come into your own truth, you will gain the following:
⢠emotional strength as your self-confidence and self-assurance build
⢠an awareness of what triggers your painful emotions and moods, and an improved ability to cope with them before the pain escalates
⢠more responsiveness to outside influences as you become less reactive
⢠a feeling of safety in your own body
⢠confidence in your ability to consciously choose your response to situations that are in your best interest with due consideration for others, rather than emotionally gambling by unconsciously reacting in unhealthy ways to gain othersâ approval and avoid pain
Mentors, coaches, and therapists can be instrumental in guiding you through the process, but the answers to truth-based healing reside in us. We must seek them out and apply them by reaching into the core of our being for the answers. The point is this:
You must uncover and discover to recover.â
Ryan, Evelyn M. (2015). Excerpt from (p.25/188)
This book isnât an easy read, but thatâs not what readers of it are looking for. Answers, methods + solutions are what it contains, which is what this writing aims for! If anything can make surviving-victims of child-sexual-abuse feel better, itâs knowing that there are things like this book.
Not that RCbbc or SBDC_rc wishes to promote any 25th Anniversary of the ‘Crash Test Dummies‘ Band’s God Shuffled His Feet, their commonly used (satirical?) phrase is significant.
crash test dummy (duckduckgo 2022)
In what may have been one of this RoyalCommBBC’s founder’s initial memories; As a toddlerđś, who was still forming awareness of sounds & speech; an early, longterm memory had begun to be planted, by a supposedly ‘innocent & friendly, social encounter’ …
Crash Test Dummies, Band (duckduckgo 2022)
Reminders of what would develop years later, with the ‘Crash Test Dummies‘ use of the term; babies + toddlers were treated as virtual “first model cars“, that could be upgraded with “future children in your families” <mothers’ group>. Oh what joy, when this happens amongst ‘christian’ families. As proven by other NRS Submissions, more of a target may have been presumed amongst the nativity of “pure + innocent godsquad folk” … đ¤ˇđżââď¸đą
Crash Testing for DUMMIES (duckduckgo 2022)
Of recent interest/concern was that #GunViolence developing (uncontrollably) in America, is a practical version of much of there tension that has been avoided in ‘holy-christian-church⢒ environments. In Australia. Amongst the same ‘loving-caring-christian’ family, who’re yet to admit … perhaps if the above đźď¸ was republished as ‘Crash Parenting for DUMMIES’? Sales could be unexpectedly high. (losses of 1st born child excused … đ¤ˇđżââď¸?!)
Further to an earlier post, while working further through the âApologiesâ (Reconciliation) part of my NRS Submission I was again contacted by a Parent. Despite being arranged, that all messages are to go through a Support Agency âparents always know betterâ … At the last calm message, I had had enough. Assertively, I laid out some key points (beyond my control) that have been bases for the other CSA instances in my life. Shortly after, I received this TXT message:
(Name), I don’t understand this very direct message, It seems as though someone or an organisation on your behalf, EgâŚ..NDIS? Have sent it? Who?
Also I am alarmed with reference to CSA & NRS, who is this?
What’s Goodbye appologies-submissions??
SMS data 28.11.20.
(Name), all I asked on the previous sms to you was, can we have a coffee soon.
â¤ď¸ & đ
SMS data 28.11.20.
These responses prove that despite believing that a victimâs comments to one parent being truthful, only select parts of this info was exchanged with the other parent. This was also an influence of the competitive siblingâs suspected-narcissism (alike the previous marriageâs attacks). Many parts of both these family issues run parallel to the marriage issues.
Father and son conflict, agression, abuse, misunderstanding. (Dreamtime; Retrieved 2020)
This misunderstood response was from my asserted response, to my familyâs misunderstanding of the Disability resulting from my CSA experiences (under their âloving & protecting, Christian parentingâ). As the truth is coming out in numerous other circles, so too is a major part of my own. Following is my assertive message, triggering the above response:
Tony is on the NDIS, for an often misunderstood injury, (Siblingâs) denial of it is both perjury (Court) & adds to my lost hope. From a history of apologies/denials (Sibling), effects of a childhood of CSA, our dysfunctional family became obvious: my complete withdrawal is required (I need to enjoy my life). Repairs are possible, similar to the style of family Tony is breaking away from. Wrongs have happened (CSA & distinction), if unaddressed they often continue.
Goodbye (CSA NRS Apologies-Submission will soon be sent)
SMS data 28.11.20.
Despite having spoken openly (I believed) to each parent in the past, any dependence on their memory of these moments appears alike âin one ear, out the otherâ; despite my continued reminders (texts, media & conversations); recorded notes of supposed âpromisesâ; getting others involved (3rd eye POV); any of these forms of âproofâ gets disregarded, now surfacing that a parent admitted to agreeing with another sibling as they were âafraid to lose contact with their grandchildrenâ. Justice does not exist, when Emotional Blackmail is played. Now, Iâll await what results from the NRS Apology.
Trauma-Informed Community (Know More 2020)
These experiences have been posted to this Blog, as numerous other past students and their families are curious or unaware of the instabilities that exist. Screens, or facades are frequently made to give differences between the unstable Private effects of family tensions and the typical social Public reputation. Through the building of a Trauma-Informed Community (Blue Knot 2020), our lifestyles should become stronger than how those of shallower, CSA âhunting groundsâ previously were.
⢠The word âtraumaâ describes events and experiences which are so stressful that they are overwhelming. ⢠The word âtraumaâ also describes the impacts of the experience/s. The impacts depend on a number of factors. ⢠People can experience trauma at any age. Many people experience trauma across different ages. ⢠Trauma can happen once, or it can be repeated. Experiences of trauma are common and can have many sources. ⢠Trauma can affect us at the time it occurs as well as later. If we donât receive the right support, trauma can affect us right through our life. ⢠We all know someone who has experienced trauma. It can be a friend, a family member, a colleague, or a client⌠or it can be us. ⢠It can be hard to recognise that a person has experienced trauma and that it is still affecting them. ⢠Trauma is often experienced as emotional and physical harm. It can cause fear, hopelessness and helplessness. ⢠Trauma interrupts the connections (âintegrationâ) between different aspects of the way we function. ⢠Trauma can stop our body systems from working together. This can affect our mental and physical health and wellbeing.
⢠While people who experience trauma often have similar reactions, each person and their experience is unique. ⢠Trauma can affect whole communities. It can also occur between and across generations, e.g. the trauma of our First Nations people. ⢠For our First Nations people, colonisation and policies such as the forced removal of children shattered important bonds between families and kin and damaged peopleâs connection to land and place. ⢠Many different groups of people experience high levels of trauma. This includes refugees and asylum seekers, as well as women and children. This is not to deny that many men and boys also experienced trauma. ⢠Certain life situations and difference can make trauma more common. People with disability of all ages experience and witness trauma more often than people without disability. LGBTQI people also experience high levels of trauma which is often due to discrimination.
Throughout the counselling I am regularly receiving, something which often gets raised is that although thereâs quite a list of TYPES of child sexual abuse:
physical abuse,
physical neglect,
emotional or mental abuse, and
sexual abuse and includes signs, symptoms, and behavioral indicators of abuse.
There may be other TYPES, yet this is just a small example of where âtraditionalâ understanding clashes with the actual impact, victims try to live with, 247, also coping with COVID-19, trying to deal with Climate Change …
Raising awareness of emotional child abuse, its effects on adult survivors & the power of words on children
EMOTIONAL CHILD ABUSE DEFINED
“Emotional abuse is like brain washing in that it systematically wears away at the victimâs self-confidence, sense of self-worth, trust in their own perceptions, and self-concept. Whether it is done by constant berating and belittling, by intimidating, or under the guise of âguidance,â âteaching,â or âadvice,â the results are similar. Eventually, the recipient of the abuse loses all sense of self and remnants of personal value. Emotional abuse cuts to the very core of a person, creating scars that may be far deeper and more lasting than physical ones.â (University of Illinois, Counseling Center)
However, when people discuss child abuse, they often refer to the physical abuse and sexual abuse of children, both absolutely horrific types of abuse. All forms of child abuse are terrible⌠but the one that underpins them allâthe abuse that often gets ignoredâis emotional child abuse.
Whereas physically abused and sexually abused children have the physical proof as witnesses to their abuse, the emotionally abused child often does not.
WHAT IS EMOTIONAL CHILD ABUSE?
âEmotional abuse is the systematic diminishment of another. It may be intentional or subconscious (or both), but it is always a course of conduct, not a single event. It is designed to reduce a childâs self-concept to where the victim considers himself unworthyâunworthy of respect, unworthy of friendship, unworthy of the natural birthright of children: love and protection.â (child advocate, lawyer, and author Andrew Vachss, You Carry the Cure in Your Own Heart essay)
âEmotional abuse is the persistent emotional ill-treatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the childâs emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. It may involve causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of ill treatment of a child, though it may occur alone.â (Department of Health et al, 1999, p.5-6)
The words persistent and systematic are crucial to the definition of child abuse. Emotional child abuse isnât a parent telling his child once, âWhy did you spill the juice? Donât do that again!â
Emotional abuse is systematic. Itâs a consistent destructive force in a childâs life. For example, an emotionally abusive parent will tell a child,âWhy did you spill the juice? You are so clumsyâŚâ and then, at some point in time (close enough to be linked to the first event), âYou spilled something again? Canât you ever do something right?â and then later, again at another point close enough in memory that the child ties it together, âYou are always spilling things because youâre not careful. You donât pay attention. Youâre always messing things up.â And so onâŚ
In time, the emotionally abused child adopts the phrase into his or her memory as something that defines them: âI am always messing up. I donât pay attention. I am not careful.â He takes the words as a description of who he is⌠and the phrases will come back to him often.
All the destructive words, whether encased in subtle phrasing or baldly hurtful, will become part of the childâs âself talk.â The words will become truths to the child.
Veronica Jarski is founder and managing editor of The Invisible Scar, a passion project dedicated to raising awareness of emotional child abuse and its effects on adult survivors. She has extensive editorial experience and a bachelorâs degree in journalism. Her work has been featured on myriad publications, such as Kapost, MarketingProfs, and Ragan.
Veronica Jarski is founder and managing editor of