AKA’s mother, Lynn Forbes just took a very brave step. She’s opened up about a truly traumatic experience in her life; the sexual abuse she experienced as a child that still haunted her as an adult. She explains what happens in her first blog post on her newly launched website:
I was sexually abused as a child. My perpetrator was a close friend of my parents. I never told them or anyone else about the abuse and for the last 38 years of my life, I have carried this “secret” inside me. I am ready to tell my story now because an untold story never heals and an untold story does not help or protect anyone but the perpetrator.
My Childhood Sexual Abuse had far reaching effects on my life. It has never let go of my throat, haunting me every day into adulthood. The sexual abuse which I have suffered as a child has remained with me until I found the courage to forgive myself for something which I was never to blame for in the first place … not until I started telling my story. It took over and controlled every aspect of my life, work and relationships.
Lynn says certain situations would also trigger those old emotions for her. She’s battled with manipulative and controlling relationships as they always take her back to those feelings of suffocation and a need to break free. She says two years ago, a significant occurrence was a turning point for her:
It takes just one person who really cares and who really pays attention, just one significant event, just one life changing experience, to trigger a decision in the victim in order for them to cross the line from victim to survivor. Each one of us could be that trigger.
I have made a decision to tell my story because I am no longer ashamed. I was a child and I did not sexually abuse myself and neither did any other child. Now that I have found my voice, I intend to use it for the purpose of helping others find their voices and speak out against Childhood Sexual Abuse.
When you have lived with the pain of Childhood Sexual Abuse all your life, talking about it is like being free after a lifetime in jail. It took an enormous amount of courage to get to this point. I have healed but it’s not yet easy for me to talk about this. I didn’t get up one morning and just made a decision to blurt it out. I had to find my voice.
You can read her full story on her website here.
We are so very proud of her and truly admire her strength. It can’t have been easy to deal with the horrors of her past.
If you are also struggling to deal with past or present abuse and are in need of someone to talk to, you can call POWA on 011 642 4345 / 011 642 4346
