Surviving This

He locked me in the house for three months…

I could see a naked man, but I could never see a face…

For me it was my father…

For the first time in my life I’ve identified this as a trauma…

I have memories but I was very very young…

Back in 1970 when you were raped it’s because you were asking for it…

She sexually abused me…

I remember I just sat in bed…

I had no idea what vodka would do to us...

He said that I was a whore, and I was 11…

I haven’t even told my family or my husband about this…

The damage was done…

The things that happened made me stronger…

I didn’t know that it was wrong…

It caused me so much shame…

When I was 13 he began sexually abusing me as well..

I remember being drugged and raped…

I lost my virginity to rape when I was 15 years old…

As an only child, you know, there wasn't a lot of options for me and where to go…

I took the edge off way too much, apparently, and um I got raped…

I don’t remember when the abuse started…

He decided to take advantage of that moment to touch me…

I was sexually abused probably the age of two or three by our neighborhood kid…

Harassment or abuse definitely skyrockets when you're a woman or even a male in the military…

This man really played the long game with my dad…

About four or five guys, just taking their time…

I was nothing has been a troubled child…

It was them using me for practice, then going to their boyfriends…

I had two fairly significant experiences, unfortunately…

It was actually my step-brother…

I have not been sexually abused myself, but I found out that my brother had when we were when we were younger…

I did that too after she did that to me because I thought that was normal…

For me it was my dad…

In the Afghani culture they’re very “lovey”, very hands-on…

I was about 3 years old…

I threw myself down the stairs and had a miscarriage…

I was raped and abused by my softball coach…

As he was talking to me one of his hands started going into my shorts…

You helped me realize that I was molested by my brother…

I don’t have advice of any nature. Still kinda looking for some myself…

What happened there happened to a lot of kids…

He hid cameras in my vents and watched me…

It’s really hard to talk about because I feel like I was so old when it continued to happen…

It was my dad and I was a freshman in high school…

These are words that I’ve never, in 30 years, spoken before…

The worst part wasn’t physical. The worst part was feeling like I deserved it…