Prejudice Against Survivors
away and we still can't talk!!! No one wants to hear that..reminds me of a lady i used to have to work with..she refused to watch news or read the paper because she didn't want to know what was going on in the world..she wanted to believe none of that existed..so she continued to live in her little world..”
Sally shares her experiences at church: “Well, they balk at me for one thing..while some truly seem compassionate..most actually fear me..they never call me, I have called some and they are so nervous to talk..I know I come across quite strangely here, but in a normal and not "frenzied" state, I do not bite, I do not have fangs, I do not drink blood..but you would think it the way they avoid me like the plague..
I get the sideway glances at church and murmurs..
I have had some come up to me and accuse me of "playing games". Another accused me of seeking attention and acting out! I mean things like that stay with you.
I'm sorry, but this is a touchy subject for me too..It took me years and years to get the courage to attend church and then I was made to believe that christians were this special breed, so full of love and compassion and they will just take me under their wings and accept and love and care for me like never before..what a joke and what kind of breed are they? I don't mean to be so critical sounding, but I have encountered so many hypocrites in church people, that i am almost ashamed to even call myself one..I am a terrible christian by the way, in case you haven't noticed by now..I have a lot of pent up resentment, but I still keep plugging through..”
Jackie has worked through for herself why there is such a lack of acceptance of survivors and shares her insights:
“I think what I have learned in therapy is that not everyone has the capacity to "hear" the intense pain that we have experienced from the extreme abuse we have suffered. My therapist has admitted to me that even though he is trained to hear, to listen, it is sometimes hard for him to know that someone could be so horribly abused in this country in this time period.
Last summer he worked with trauma survivors in Bosnia and the Ukraine with a group of therapist volunteering time in these war torn
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