What would it sound like if a mugging victim were asked the kinds of questions a rape victim is? Check it out.
It was my personal mission to break the silence, not just for myself but for others who were not yet ready to speak. I wanted to share my story with whoever was willing to listen in hopes of making a difference in someone’s life. Look out world; I am on a mission to end sexual violence!
I have a history of sexual abuse which I have just started working on in therapy--including repressed memories. I have never willingly engaged in sexual experiences and I am 25 years old. A few years ago, during an ER visit for extreme pain (kidney stones) I was given an internal exam which felt out of my control. In fact, seemed forced and I left feeling very violated. Now, I have never seen a gyn even though I am much overdue. I feel like I should for health reasons but I am terrified I will have flashbacks again if the doctor touches my vagina. How do I deal with this? It has impacted this and my ability to seek relationships because of fear of being touched vaginally.
If you have been raped by more than one person but as a result you never stay with a male in fear of becoming close to them and then you find a guy that you really like and you want to trust him but you just can't ... what should I do to make us a trusting couple?
I'm a 18 year-old male. I was raped twice in my life (6 and 10 years old) and I took it pretty well. My life was quite normal until now, and had no problems with girls. I never had a girlfriend, never been the type who commit, but I'd had a lot of sex with a lot of girls. Two weeks ago I had contact with the man who attacked me when I was 10. Since then I've having nightmares and have been remembering all what happened. I've been drinking and went back to drugs. I wouldn't want to, but it's the only way I can get some rest. Last weekend happened something that really scared me. I was drunk and high and without noticing I found myself rubbing a guy's leg. I pretty much wanted to make out with him and other stuff. I can't become gay, it's not fear I hate myself so much, I hate the pervert who abused me, I hate everything right now. Yesterday I cut my wrists but it wasn't deep enough. I don't want to die but I find hard living right now. This evening I cut my face. What happened the weekend means I'm gay? Am I becoming gay? What can I do to prevent it? How can I stop remembering? It's just too embarrassing to talk to anybody. If I was a girl I could do it, but come on, I'm a man. Men don't let these things happen. I'm just trash.
That older boyfriend of yours, the one who keeps pressuring you for sex, who's got you scared you're pregnant for the 38th time, the one who is supposed to be the grownup, but acts like the child? The one who seems to keep mucking up more and of your life with every minute that passes? Yeah, THAT guy: I have to admit that I am becoming seriously pissed off at that guy, for a whole lot of reasons I want to tell you all about.
I was dating a guy and the whole time I was dating him, he kept wanting to have sex with me. And I told him I wanted to wait for marriage. He said he'd wait for me and never ask me about it again. Well......that didn't happen. Every time we were together he kept asking if I wanted to move to the next level and I said no. Well, he kept doing this for two years, and we broke up a couple times over it. He'd always just apologize and say he wouldn't ask again. But then one day we went fishing together and he brought a blanket (which I thought was sweet....) and a condom. And he asked again.
When I was younger, (think 8 to begin with) my uncle kissed me on the mouth and told me that was the way I was supposed to kiss boys. It catapulted me out of normal 8 year old states of mind and left me obsessing about sex. I masturbated A LOT and had what I thought years later what might have been an orgasm at 11.
I thought that everyone was as sex obsessed as I was, which was probably due to the enormous amounts of media attention paid to having sex, trying to have sex, making yourself sexy enough to have sex, etc. It might also be useful to add that I was way ahead in school, so my peer group were at least 2 years older than I was, meaning that the boys around me were hitting puberty when I started this crazy sexual revolution...
One of our volunteers, Joey, leads an exercise in thinking about people you can turn to in a crisis. So who would you talk to when you need help? Come and share with our other users and get ideas from them about where you can go when you need someone to listen.
Who Would You Tell?After being abused, it can sometimes be difficult to imagine that healthy relationships exist, or what they would even feel like. In this thread, users talk about what a healthy relationship does look and feel like, and share their own experiences with healthy relationships.
What does a healthy relationship look and feel like?Many people wind up in abusive relationships without realizing that the relationship is abusive. It can often take a while to come to that realization that a relationship is abusive, especially when you so desperately want for the relationship to work or have been fed cultural stereotypes and propoganda about how people in relationships should behave. In this thread, our users talk about what made them realize their relationship was abusive and what made them decide to get out, and how understanding that a relationship was abusive has impacted the rest of their lives and relationships.
When the light bulb went onSurvivors of abuse often will note characteristics about their abusers that were similar to other abusers they have encountered. Sometimes those characteristics are things that can be noticed early on, before the abuse starts or escalates. These are warning signs of abusers, and they are worth thinking about so next time you are on a date you'll know what signs to watch out for. In this thread, our users share their own experiences with an abuser's personality traits.
When the signs aren't so clear-cut -- experiences with abusers' personality traitsloveisrespect, National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline is a national resource that can be accessed by phone or the internet.
The Polaris Project Action Center is the place where you can do something about human trafficking right now. It’s a site for you to find out about the reality of modern-day slavery in the U.S., get up to date information about the issue, and find out how you can make a direct impact on the lives of victims and survivors.
This website provides information for survivors, as well as ways to contact local shelters, legal help, and counselors. Most of the information is for residents of the Ottawa, Ontario region, but there is also information for other Canadian provinces.
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