We Are Adult Survivors of Child Abuse and Neglect

Being abused and neglected as a child sets in motion behavioral issues that we as adult survivors must cope with for the rest of our lives. Since parents in America are not required to have any training in child development, are not held accountable for their misguided, and all too often narcissistic drives to produce “perfect” children, and are not subject to any oversight in how they treat their innocent charges, the American home, in far too many cases, is not a safe place to live.

“You are no different than someone who has had a heart attack. I have no empathy and very little sympathy. This is a business.” Those were my manager’s comments when I told her I was suffering from PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) and needed her assistance.

One of the reasons I launched this blog was due to the media’s ineffective and ill-served use of their power to inform. It is not for the lack of trying. I wrote to some of the top media companies and said, “The Surgeon General has said that family violence is now at an epidemic level.[1]

All too often parents and caretakers don’t teach children one of the most critical lessons of life, and that is how to regulate their emotions in a healthy way. Instead, too many caretakers make it clear that they are to be obeyed, no questions asked without taking into consideration any of the child’s needs or preferences.

I have been working hard to answer a question posed to me. Someone asked, “Why should I care about child abuse and neglect? There are a lot of problems out there. Why should I care?” It has taken me some time to get my arms around that question.

Yesterday on the front page of The Washington Post’s PARADE magazine were two pictures side-by-side. One was of Osama Bin Laden. The other was of a babysitter convicted of a sex crime against a child. They were right on the money as child abusers are domestic terrorists.

I am speaking out to expose the ignorance, denial and lack of national concern about keeping sexual predators, most of whom are family members or acquaintances, away from children.  I have lived with every aspect of child sexual abuse my entire life.  I was isolated and sexually abused throughout my entire childhood and teenage years.