Being silenced as a child is one of the most horrifying experiences one could ever imagine. Being silent as an adult can be debilitating.
You question:
Why do parents not believe their child? Why do they make their children feel like this was their fault? What did a child do so wrong? Why do parents not love their child? Why does the perpetrator/abuser seem to get away with everything, but yet the one victimized is the one punished for the things they have done?
This does not seem fair for the child. A voice is so small that no one seems to care or hear the small cries for justice. They hear instead; “It really didn’t affect her/him that bad.” Really? They have no clue. They haven’t experienced what he/she went through, so how could they possibly know if it did or didn’t affect the child. They couldn’t!
The victim cries silently because she/he is afraid of being punished more. She/he really can’t grasp why. She/he longs to be loved but feels unwanted, betrayed, abandoned, and rejected, like an outcast, and wonders why she/he was ever born.
Being silenced leads to not telling when more abuse occurs. They are afraid of the consequences if they do. The victim feels lost and lonely. It leads to more abuse throughout their lives. Some want to self-injure to ease the pain inside by cutting, burning, pulling hair out, drinking, overeating, binging, purging, taking drugs, etc.
Quite often thoughts of death flood your mind and some attempts at suicide. Sleepless nights, night-terrors every night, fear, panic and anxiety attacks daily, isolation, avoidance, numbing, disorientation, etc. Nothing is as it should be and we will never know how it should have been. We can never go back to who we would have been, if this didn’t happen.
Innocence stolen leaves a void. Always feeling, something is missing from our lives. Some, have been silenced forever. Some, until they become brave enough to take a stand and tell themselves, and the world, enough! No more!. And some, have the courage to give those silenced, a voice, and a cause for hope, and a chance at healing, and a reason to live another day.
With Faith, there is Hope…
PW
Patricia Wenskunas
contribution credit:
Patricia Wenskunas, John Adair, www.TheMightyPhoenix.com and www.FoReInternational.com
