Doubt

There is nothing worse than doubt. Not knowing, always wondering, often anxious and constantly questioning is the position that doubt puts us in. It is a place of unhappiness and unrest. It blocks us from moving forward in relationships in the family and in the workplace, and it steals away precious and valuable time from the joys we would experience in our everyday life.

When victim/survivor/thrivers come forward to tell of their experience of child sexual abuse, it is most often way after the trauma has occurred. When the victim/survivor is ready and able to talk of their abuse, it is often met with doubt. People cannot, or will not, or do not want to accept that it happened. This doubt seriously and further injures the person coming forward. Recall to mind when someone doubted you-more so, try to remember the hurt and pain you caused when you introduced doubt into your own relationships.

It takes time for any person who suffers the trauma of child sexual abuse to break the chains of silence and come forward to disclose what happened to them. It is not unusual, it is the norm. Please do not try to justify or rationalize a person's narrative or motive when they come forward. Instead, listen carefully and empathetically, and open your hearts to receive their story without judgment.

The complexities of child sexual abuse are deeply and psychologically rooted in manipulation, and all kinds of grooming behaviors that make the abuser's behaviors appear as good, kind and loving. Try making sense of that when you are a child or teenager.

The most important thing you can do for any victim/survivor of any kind of abuse is to believe them, and let those professionals whose job it is to figure out the rest, and help them to do so.




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