resources

               National crisis hotline:  1-800-4-A-CHILD  (1-800-422-4453) 

                                       https://www.childhelp.org/hotline/  

The ChildHelp National Child Abuse Hotline is dedicated to the prevention of child abuse. Serving the U.S. and Canada, the hotline is staffed 24/7 with professional crisis counselors who provide assistance in multiple languages (through interpreters) to child and adult victims and those who care about them. All calls are confidential.

"If you’ve been a victim of inappropriate sexual behavior, here’s my best advice: Tell someone. We are social creatures in that we need other people. Nothing is worse than going against the grain of our genetic makeup and locking away a painful secret in a place so deep inside we think no one will find out. I guarantee it will become a voracious worm eating away at our minds, and it’s just a matter of time before we will cease to function. It isn’t far beyond that, that we will want to die—or even try to die.  But that need not happen if we unburden the deepest hurts of our hearts to someone who cares." 

Stop It Now—mobilizing adults, families, and communities to take actions to protect children before they are harmed     http://stopitnow.org

Darkness To Light—equipping people with the knowledge and skills to effectively protect children; excellent PDF for statistics on abuse and its consequences  

https://www.d2l.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Statistics_5_Consequences.pdf

American SPCC (Society for the Positive Care of Children)—their mission is to ensure that every child has a chance to become a happy, healthy, and productive adult.  https://americanspcc.org/child-sexual-abuse/

At least 1 in 6 males report having been sexually abused before the age of sixteen. That data translates to more than 17 million men in America alone. Many of them never tell anyone because they don’t realize that early sexual coercion by women or older men is abuse. Most blame themselves and feel shame that they didn’t say No or try to get away from the offender. Men who are sexually assaulted may suffer from the same type of emotional problems, depression, addictions, and PTSD as women who are assaulted. But symptoms from sexual trauma can look different in men. 

1in6—excellent resource on male sexual abuse   https://1in6.org/get-information/myths

Male Survivor—a leader in the fight to improve the resources and support available to male survivors of all forms of sexual abuse in the US and around the globe. https://www.malesurvivor.org

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network)—Information on Criminal and Civil Statutes of Limitations by state     https://www.rainn.org/public-policy-action

National Center for Victims of Crime—the nation's leading resource and advocacy organization for crime victims and those who serve them http://victimsofcrime.org/media/reporting-on-child-sexual-abuse/child-sexual-abuse-statistics 

If you are in crisis, call or text the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls are confidential.     http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org  

SAVE (Suicide Awareness, Voices of Education)—“Through raising public awareness, educating communities, and equipping every person with the right tools, we know we can SAVE lives.”   http://www.save.org/

The Jason Foundation — In memory of 16-year-old Jason Flatt, this foundation helped pass the Jason Flatt Act, the nation’s most inclusive and mandatory youth suicide awareness and prevention legislation pertaining to Teacher’s In-Service Training.   http://jasonfoundation.com 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is believed by many experts to be the most common aftereffect of sexual abuse. PTSD has a subset of varying symptoms, which the Mayo Clinic says may include fearful thoughts, bad dreams, depression, worry, intense guilt, panic attacks, and feeling emotionally numb (dissociation). The most central feature of PTSD, however, is flashbacks. Survivors can find their minds constantly jumping back and forth between past and present. Not just the memory itself comes back, but so do the emotions connected with that memory—a sort of persistent “re-experiencing” the traumatic events. Those with the disorder would like to be able to turn it off, but cannot. They have to find a way to deal with the constant onslaught of images and overpowering feelings. That is often accompanied by the “fight or flight” response, a reaction of the autonomic nervous system to the visually invasive images in the mind.

PTSD changes the physical properties of the brain. That is, how the left side of the brain, which controls logical thinking, interacts with the right side, which controls emotions. When the two sides work together as they are designed to, a person will feel strong emotions when a distressing event happens; but at some point later in time the brain “pushes” those feelings and memories to the left hemisphere where they are “time-stamped.” After that, they aren’t felt as strongly when they come to mind again.

But with PTSD, the memories stay lodged in the right side of the brain, so any little thing—a word, a smell, a place, an event—triggers the same emotions felt as when the event first happened. Persons with PTSD cannot simply “stop thinking about it” or “get over it.” Telling them to “let it go” is not only unhelpful, it lays another burden of guilt and failure on their shoulders.

Researchers are continually looking for ways to help persons with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A few ways include cognitive therapy, medication, biofeedback, stress inoculation training, exposure therapy, and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Every person is different; therefore, some may be helped by one method and some by another.

Everyone who lives with PTSD eventually develops his or her own methods of coping. Some ways such as alcohol and illicit drugs are obviously not good ways. Yet those with this disorder tend to be very resilient, strong, and creative people. Over time, and if they have the love and support of people who care, they devise “mental tools” that enable them to function and even thrive, to help make their own little corner of the world a better place.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs—National Center for PTSD https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/index.asp

American Addiction Centers—information on the link between PTSD and addictions

https://americanaddictioncenters.org/co-occurring-disorders/ptsd-addiction

National Institute of Mental Health

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml