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National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse
National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse
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NAASCA Highlights
EDITOR'S NOTE: Occasionally we bring you articles from local newspapers, web sites and other sources that constitute but a small percentage of the information available to those who are interested in the issues of child abuse and recovery from it.
We present articles such as this simply as a convenience to our readership ... |
Feature Story Archives - 2013
presentations from a variety of sources on
issues of child abuse and trauma |
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Here are a few recent stories and feature articles from a variety of sources that are related to the kinds of issues we cover on our web site. They'll represent a small percentage of the information available to us, the public, as we fight to provide meaningful recovery services and help for those who've suffered child abuse. We'll add to and update this page regularly. |
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for Jessica's Corner --> CLICK HERE
by Jessica Stevens, co-host of NAASCA's
"Stop Child Abuse Now" (SCAN) talk radio show |
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on-demand --> CLICK HERE
"Stop Child Abuse Now" (SCAN) and
"Community Matters"
talk radio shows |
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Feature Stories - 2013
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Top 10 Sites |
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Best of 2013
Top 10 Websites for Abuse Survivors
by Bill Murray
Here's an article that lists the Top 10 Websites for Abuse Survivors in 2013. It was generated by GoodTherapy.org
NAASCA works hard to offer anyone interested in issues of child abuse and trauma, no matter from what perspective. That's why you'll always find info, resources and articles on prevention, intervention and recovery from every legitimate source we know about.
We also include all kinds of child abuse .. sexual assault, violent abuse, emotional trauma and neglect. |
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"Judging Me" - a memoir
from the Honorable Mary Elizabeth Bullock
by Bill Murray
One of our newer NAASCA family members, Judge Mary Elizabeth Bullock, has written a just-published memoir, one of the most honest and revealing you'll ever read on the issues of child abuse and trauma. Below you'll find a book review I recently wrote on "Juding Me" along with the link to get the memoir at AMAZON.
Judge Bullock also appeared recently as a special guest on our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk show. Inside you'll find the description and direct link to the "on-demand" version of her episode, as well as my review of her book.
Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - episode 720 -- special guest Judge Mary Elizabeth Bullock
"Judging Me" - a memoir from Judge Mary Elizabeth Bullock - a book review by Bill Murray |
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Dec 1st - 8th -- 2013 Annual Male Abuse Awareness Week.
by Bill Murray, NAASCA founder
For the third consecutive year I'was proud and happy to support the P. Luna Foundation events surrounding the annual Male Abuse Awareness Week (the first week of December). We featured Barbara Ochoa, their founder, as our special guest on our talk show on Dec 3rd and I appeared on Patricia McKnight's terrific "Butterfly Dreams" show on Dec 5th. Then I was the main speaker at the two hour open-air public event on Sat, Dec 7th from noon to 2pm in San Francisco's beautiful Union Square. Previous years I've participated in San Diego and Los Angeles. This year it was San Francisco! |
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on the Internet:
BlogTalkRadio Show Appearances
Once again, I helped to promote the annual, week-long activities surrounding the P. Luna celebration of Male Abuse Awareness Week. In the past I've made appearances in San Diego and Los Angeles, & on our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk show on BlogTalkRadio).
. ..This year I was on the radio twice:
with guest Barbara Ochoa - 12/3, 8pm EST
with host Patricia McKnight - 12/5, 9pm EST |
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appeared in person:
P.Luna Foundation event in San Francisco
I helped acknowledge the pain and suffering of millions of American men and boys, many of them in need of our understanding and support. Too often males are living in fear of being judged by a community that still seems to insist a young man who's experienced child abuse and trauma should be able to just "get over it," tough it out.
...This year I appeaered in person:
speaking LIVE - "Help 4 Guys" Sat, 12/7 - noon to 2pm
in beautiful Union Square in downtown San Francisco! |
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Today’s teens use technology more than ever. Most have high-speed Internet access, which they use to send instant messages to their friends, create blogs and online videos, keep personal profiles on social networking websites, share photos, and more. Many teens also have cell phones and spend hours text-messaging friends. Technology, especially the Internet, allows all of us immediate access to information, which can greatly benefit our lives. However, it has also provided some people with the means to exploit the innocent, commit crimes, and inflict injury on others. This technology has allowed some teens to take the bullying that thrives in school hallways into cyberspace.
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What's the impact of porn on kids?
by Janet Rosenzweig, MS, PhD, MPA, National consultant for child sexual abuse prevention programs for Prevent Child Abuse America
If your children have access to a device with Internet access -- and it's a good bet that they do -- it's an equally good bet that they've been exposed to pornographic images.
A major study found that almost all boys and two-thirds of girls over age 13 have been exposed to online porn. Most exposure happens between the ages of 14 and 17, but thousands of children 13 and younger are exposed to sexually explicit images daily. Boys are more likely to report that they sought out pornographic images while girls were more likely to report involuntary exposure. |
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Standing Up for the Civil Rights of Children |
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California
Gov. Jerry Brown's Recent Veto of Child Abuse Legislation and What It Tells Us About the Civil Rights Movement for Children
EDITOR'S NOTE: Here at NAASCA we're only too happy to promote and support the effort to eliminate Statute of Limitation Laws across the country. Our members know all too well the difficulties encountered by child abuse survivors in bringing both criminal and civil cases that are related to the period of time since their trauma happened and being ready to take an action against a predator. We continue to speak out on this issue regularly, both on our NAASCA.org web site and on our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk radio show.
October 17, 2013
by Marci A. Hamilton |
No civil rights movement worth pursuing happens overnight or easily, because it is always a fight against the entrenched powers that resist and detest change. The ups and downs are sometimes steep, with the oppressed facing devastating losses and heady triumphs along the way. In the civil rights movement for children, which is transforming children from property into persons in the United States, a critical element is giving child sex abuse (CSA) victims meaningful access to justice.
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It's Time We Stood Together –
Its Time To Eliminate SOL Laws |
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It's Time We Stood Together – Its Time To Eliminate SOL Laws
Statute of Limitations rules mean getting justice varies wildly across America
EDITOR'S NOTE: Here at NAASCA we're only too happy to promote and support this effort to eliminate Statute of Limitation Laws across the country. Our members know all too well the difficulties encountered by child abuse survivors in bringing both criminal and civil cases that are related to the period of time since their trauma happened and being ready to take an action against a predator. We continue to speak out on this issue regularly, both on our NAASCA.org web site and on our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk radio show.
October 12, 2013
by Together We Heal
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My friend and colleague, Marjorie McKinnon, director of The Lamplighters, posted this saying and I believe it sums up everything we should do as organizations working toward the same goal – “We must all stand together, so that no one must stand alone.”
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Foster Care as a Mitigating Circumstance in Criminal Proceedings
by DANIEL POLLACK, KHAYA EISENBERG, AMANDA SUNDARSINGH
(Foster Care as a Mitigating Circumstance.pdf - includes all footnotes, references, etc)
It is the judge who can appreciate the full complexity of the offender and his crime, and no prescriptive set of laws can appreciate the subtleties in determining the punishment that justice demands. If the 600-plus pages of the most recent set of sentencing guidelines have taught us anything, it is that punishment cannot be reduced to an algorithm.
The sensationalism of many criminal trials, especially those of a capital nature, often result from the aggravating circumstances impacting the victim. Conversely, the mitigating circumstances that affect the accused‘s criminality rarely grab headlines. During the sentencing phase of a criminal trial, mitigating factors may justify leniency or otherwise serve to lessen the sentence for the crime with which the accused has been charged. Whether a particular factor will be considered a mitigating one will depend upon the particular facts of the case. The federal |
Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 provides guidance in this process, but each state maintains the discretion to dictate its own criteria within the confines of constitutional constructs. The United States Supreme Court has increasingly addressed the importance of clarity in the presentation and consideration of mitigating evidence, which is integral to the trial and sentencing of an accused.
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Dr Irfan Zafar |
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Pakistan
Parental child abuse
Let's not leave behind a generation which is as much mentally crippled as we are
by Dr Irfan Zafar
John Lennon, an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of The Beatles, the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in the history of popular music said “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life.” As the saying goes, do not educate your child to be rich, educate him to be happy so that when he grows up, he will realize the value of things not the price. |
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NAASCA's own
Carol D Levine
-- making a difference
through her work
in her local NW New Jersey community !!! |
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Centenary College Social Services events in Hackettstown, NJ,
designed to 'Stop Child Abuse Now'
by Warren Reporter
October 2, 2013 -- [ Carol's most recent radio interview: 10-03-13 | WRNJ Radio, part 2 ]
The Centenary College Social Sciences Department announces an event designed to support the “Stop Child Abuse Now” initiative spearheaded by National Association for Adult Survivors of Child Abuse (NAASCA). At 6 p.m., Oct. 23, in the George H. Whitney Chapel at Centenary College, Carol D. Levine, child abuse survivor and author of “Panic Child: A Harrowing True Story of Sexual Abuse and Neglect,” will speak about her experiences and how to be more aware about this epidemic. A limited amount of her books will be available for purchase that evening for $10. This event is free and open to the public.
Levine is a survivor, author and advocate who knows all too well about the horrors of child abuse, domestic violence and all the negative efforts it has on the lives of children. Her mission is to help educate people as to just how bad the epidemic of child abuse is and the impact it has on society. Levine speaks about physical abuse, emotional abuse and the neglect of children. If left untreated, abuse can impede the progress and growth of a child and it alters children to the core of their being. Levine suffered from all of the abuses mentioned, which caused her to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, but she has healed through help that she received over the years. |
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Reactions of Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Assault
from RAINN -- (adapted from materials provided by the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault)
CAVEAT: The following descriptions are meant to serve as a general guideline for how a victim of sexual assault might react in a time of pain or crisis. It is important to recognize, however, that each victim of sexual assault will have his or her own life experiences and personality that will influence how he or she react to the assault. |
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Dr. Lois Lee |
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The Model Residential Program for America's Sex Trafficked Children
The First Step - The 'Critical Figure'
by Dr. Lois Lee -- Founder and President, Children of the Night
EDITOR'S NOTE: Dr. Lois Lee was recently a special guest on our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk show, now available
in our archives in an "on-demand" version. We highly recommend a listen to this amazing and dedicated woman. |
A successful residential program for America's child sex trafficking victims requires an appropriate adult role model, a critical figure to whom the child may attach. Perhaps for the first time in his/her life, the child may feel safe enough to experiment with new behaviors that are based on friendship and trust instead of hatred and fear. Attachment to this critical figure, usually female, mother figure in a residential setting is essential to engaging the sex trafficking victim in attempts to try a new way of life. |
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Mental Health: Child abuse impacts brain
by SCOTT MENDELSON -- for the News-Review
The effects of childhood sexual and physical abuse last a lifetime. Abused children grow up to be adults who are prone to depression, anxiety, substance abuse and other psychiatric disorders. They are more prone to suicide. However, in recent years we have learned that abuse does more than wound self-esteem and break the spirit. It damages the very substance of the brain and how it functions.
A major way by which childhood abuse disrupts normal brain activity is by diminishing its capacity to handle stress. Stress is more than the worry and distress we experience when the circumstances of life push us beyond our limits. The body's response to stress is a complex biological mechanism. |
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About Domestic Abuse/Violence (and child abuse)
Stats and facts
by Bill Murray
The issues of domestic abuse and violence and those of child abuse are closely related, so closely related that we'd feel our site was incomplete without a discussion of the statistics and facts of domestic violence, especially important because so many children are raised in homes where they are directly exposed.
All these kids experience emotional trauma of the most serious sort, watching dad browbeat and become physically violent with mom.
From the child's perspective, growing up in a home where domestic violence is the method of controlling a spouse is both traumatic in and of itself, and can set up "accepted" patterns of behavior they'll eventually continue to display in their own adult lives. |
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www.Together-We-Heal.org |
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How to Talk with Your Children about Sexual Abuse
Childhood Sexual Abuse Information Forms:
These forms work hand in hand with “How to Talk with Your Children about Sexual Abuse” (posted inside), the article by Together We Heal (TWH). Please read the article so you will know how best to utilize these forms. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email: TogetherWeHeal@ymail.com
1) Childhood Sexual Abuse Information Form with Contact Numbers
2) Childhood Sexual Abuse Information Form without Contact Numbers |
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I, Pedophile - (PLEASE NOTE INCLUDED UPDATE)
Child pornography should end. As an ex-convict, I ask: Is prison the most effective way to address demand?
by David Goldberg
It was shortly before 3:00 a.m. on May 30, 2012 when I turned off my computer for the last time. I slid my recliner over three feet and tucked myself into my bed, for another sleepless session of self-loathing and self-pity. Later that morning, I would not be at my friends' home as I had planned to help them celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. Instead, I would find myself sitting on the hard wooden bench of a police holding cell. |
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 know how to defend yourself |
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Basic Self-Defense
Prevention / Intervention at the point of attack
by Bill Murray
Learning about self-defense may involve everything from learning a few common sense tips and recommendations about personal security to becoming involved in "combat training" .. some of which can be quite demanding physically.
But most important is to become self-aware of your surroundings, taking some basic precautions, and being ready to engage an attacker is a number of techniques designed to allow you to escape as uninjured as possible. |
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Behind Closed Doors - Facts We Ignore!!!
by Tracey Grabowski - www.speakingtree.in
1. Domestic Violence and Abuse
2. Child Abuse and Neglect
3. Elder Abuse and Neglect
4. Depression
5. Rape and Sexual violence |
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Michael Reagan speaks out about child abuse
by Jerome Elam -- The Washington Times, Communities
WASHINGTON, August 9, 2013 — Michael Reagan is the adopted son of former president Ronald Reagan and actress Jane Wyman. He is also a survivor of child abuse and child pornography.
After he was adopted in 1945 by former president Ronald Reagan and actress Jane Wyman, Michael Reagan fell victim to circumstances that defy our perception of the life of children of celebrities.
Michael Reagan's descent into a world of pain and suffering began in 1948 at the age of three with the divorce of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman. This event changed Michael's world as he was placed in the custody of his mother and the time spent with his father became a shadow of their former relationship. Divorce can be difficult to process in the mind of a young child, and many internalize the blame for the breakup of their parents, saddling themselves with a lifetime of guilt. |
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UNITED STATES REACHES AGREEMENT WITH AMERICA'S CHILDREN TO RESOLVE DISCRIMINATION BASED ON AGE
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is an OP-ED of a proposed agreement between the US Department of Justice and all the children of America. At NAASCA this is the kind of thing we'd like to see one day coming out of the DOJ. This matter would be handled by the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice in Washington on behalf of the Civil Rights of all our children (and any of us who may have at one time BEEN children).
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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(202) 514-2007 |
WWW.JUSTICE.GOV |
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UNITED STATES REACHES AGREEMENT WITH AMERICA'S CHILDREN TO RESOLVE DISCRIMINATION BASED ON AGE
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WASHINGTON – The United States entered into a settlement agreement with the Children of America to resolve an exhaustive investigation into allegations of discrimination against them based solely on their age. Under the agreement, the country will take all the necessary steps to ensure that all children, whose age alone has previously separated them into a discriminated group, be treated like all other American citizens, afforded all constitutional rights enjoyed by adults. These rights and corrective measures shall also extend to all American adults who once were American children.
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Fr. James Connell speaks during Mass at
Holy Name Parish in Sheboygan, Wisconsin |
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Critical question leads priest to challenge lax abuse policies
by Tom Roberts -- NCR (National Catholic Reporter)
What Peter Isely remembers about driving to a coffee shop in the suburbs north of Milwaukee late last November to meet Fr. James Connell was that he really didn't want to go.
Isely, a victim of clergy abuse and a founding member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, had been to so many meetings. “I was tired,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I was tired of the whole thing. We had been through all of this with Dolan [Archbishop Timothy Dolan, then of Milwaukee and now of New York].
“How can I put this?” he asked. “I usually get calls from priests, or priests come up to me in town, and they say, ‘Thanks, if it weren't for you guys nothing would change.' But they would never do something publicly.” |
This meeting, however, would end up being different from the rest. And it would be different, Isely says in retrospect, because Connell dared to ask a critical question of himself. It was a question that might, in the asking, sound remarkably obvious, especially for a minister of the Gospel. But it was so unusual that Isely said he's never heard of a Catholic cleric ask it of himself in the context of the sexual abuse crisis.
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Laura Cowan |
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Interpersonal Violence
Laura’s Story
Lakewood, OH
by Laura Cowen
cowanl@cmha.net
The Ohio Department of Health's Violence and Injury Prevention Program is publishing a book which will be in print in August about interpersonal violence and they will be using my story along with other survivors.
The book will be placed in many agencies across the United States. |
I survived one of the most notorious domestic violence abuse cases in recent history. The case, involving 19 victims, made headlines earning the abuser seven life terms outrageous as it was, my story fits a typical pattern.
It’s a story strips victims of everything but the will to survive. I had escaped relationship, now calling myself a survivor. I was raped, beaten, stabbed abuser in a locked garage with my children for over 6 months, a survivor of domestic violence, my three children and I remember hopeless, desperate, confused, abused and alone.
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 Florentna (Tina) Rusanovschi |
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Is Family Court violating Parental Constitutional Rights?
Parents (and their children) are suffering
by Bill Murray
Here's an article by Examiner.com contributor, Ica Iova, who's writing about the ongoing case of Florentina (Tina) Rusanovschi.
Both are NAASCA family members.
We have had each of them as recent special guests on our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk radio show, which is how they "met" each other.
Tina's right in the middle of this painful fight, trying to gain custody of her 13 year old son, a boy who began to display signs of abuse and trauma as early as when he was 5 years old.
Its a real shame that as the system drags things out, parents and their children continue to suffer.
Here are the direct links to the "on-demand" versions of our two talk shows, one featuring Ica, the other Tina:
Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 594 - Ica Iova from Vancouver, Canada - originally aired 6/13/13
Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 604 - Florentina Rusanovschi from New Jersey - originally aired 6/27/13 |
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"My heart stopped when I saw photo of
Nigella’s abuse .. it brought back horror of
my own domestic ordeal" - Lurleen Hilliard |
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Lurleen Hilliard - NAASCA's Leprechaun
Amazing dedication, infectious energy
by Bill Murray
Here's an article from one of the UK's biggest and best known newspapers, The Sunday Mirror, which features one of NAASCA's own family members, Lurleen Hilliard.
Lurleen's from Ireland, and refers to herself as NAASCA's leprechaun (her nickname for herself is "Leppi"). She's one of an ever-growing group of across-the-pond and down-under NAASCA volunteers.
Her dedication is amazing, her energy infectious. She's been a great help with our social networking efforts, and is now assisting me in finding and scheduling "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk show guests.
A real "people person," Lurleen thinks nothing of calling anyone, any time, and frequently uses SKYPE to connect with folks overseas.
As if that wasn't enough, Leepi's also a regular panelist now on our talk show, staying up until the wee hours of the morning so that she can participate!
Lurleen was a featured special guest herself on the talk show recently. Here's the link to the on-demand version of her appearance, now in pour recommended show archives:
Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 575 -- Lurleen Hilliard, from Ireland - originally aired 5/17/13 |
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Chris Anderson
Exec Dir MaleSurvivor |
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Triggers from trauma - what to do
by Bill Murray
June 29, 2013
Among the special guests we've had in June on our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk show is one I'd like to highlight. Chris Anderson, Executive Director of Male Survivor, appeared on June 18th, Episode 597.
Chris was open and engaging, sharing with our audience his own story of abuse and trauma, and of how he found his path to recovery through the orgainization where he's now Executive Director, MaleSurvivor (www.MaleSurvivor.org).
We asked Chris to suggest something he'd written that we could post for him as a Featured Article on our NAASCA web site. He sent us the following article on Triggers, which he notes has been viewed 13,000 times over the last year. |
Inside is the article Chris wrote on Triggers, following the Boston Marathon bombings, which origrinally appeared on the MaleSurvivor web site as a forum submission. Below that are a few extra gems Chris thought NAASCA readers might enjoy!
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1914 collision - trolly & locomotive |
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‘Railway spine'? ‘Soldier's heart'? Try ‘PTSD.'
by Jonathan Purtle -- Doctoral candidate in public health. Works at Drexel's Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice
June is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) awareness month. Sure, there are months for almost every medical condition imaginable. But this month's designation, which came about after Congress named June 27th national PTSD awareness day just last year, is a symbolic milestone in the mental health condition's history and struggle for legitimacy. The cluster of symptoms now known as PTSD—which can include having nightmares and flashbacks about a traumatic event, avoiding things that remind one of the event, feeling emotionally numb, easily startled, or “on edge,” and others—has gone by many different names over the past 150 years.
In the mid-19th century, surgeon John Eric Erichsen coined the term railway spine to describe the symptoms he observed among people who survived or witnessed train accidents. American Civil War surgeon Jacob Mendez Da Costa described similar symptoms among soldiers he treated on the battlefield—a condition he called soldier's heart . Psychoanalysts Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud documented the hysteria caused by childhood sexual abuse among their female patients. British military psychiatrist Charles Samuel Myers referred to the shell shock experienced by World War I soldiers after they returned from combat. |
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Peter Thomas Senese - I CARE Foundation
by Bill Murray
June 19, 2013
It was a distinct pleasure to welcome Peter Thomas Senese, bi-coastal (NYC-LA) Best-Selling Author and I CARE Foundation Founding Director, to our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk show recently.
Peter spoke openly about how the experiences he had with his own son led to the activism in which he's now so fully engaged.
The self-funded not-for-profit I CARE Foundation is dedicated to preventing International Child Abduction. Of special note is the just released Universal International Travel Child Consent Form, a world-wide game changer.
NAASCA is delighted to be able to recommend such an important resource and to partner with Peter and the I CARE Foundation in any way we can to help prevent International Child Abduction. |
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Dr. Allen Frances, co-author of the previous version of the "Diagnostic and Strategic Manual of Mental Disorders" (DSM-4) -- known as "the psychiatrist's bible" -- discusses new, controversial changes to the text. Frances is the
author of a new book called
"Saving Normal."
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Psychiatry divided as mental health 'bible' (DSM-5) denounced
from NewScientist.com - Health - May 2013
Guest editorial:
"One manual shouldn't dictate US mental health research"
by Dr Allen Frances
The world's biggest mental health research institute is abandoning the new version of psychiatry's "bible" – the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM-5), questioning its validity and stating that "patients with mental disorders deserve better." This bombshell comes just weeks before the publication of the fifth revision of the manual, called DSM-5.
On 29 April, Thomas Insel, director of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), advocated a major shift away from categorising diseases such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia according to a person's symptoms.
Instead, Insel wants mental disorders to be diagnosed more objectively using genetics, brain scans that show abnormal patterns of activity and cognitive testing.
This would mean abandoning the manual published by the American Psychiatric Association that has been the mainstay of psychiatric research for 60 years.
The DSM has been embroiled in controversy for a number of years. Critics have said that it has outlasted its usefulness, has turned complaints that are not truly illnesses into medical conditions, and has been unduly influenced by pharmaceutical companies looking for new markets for their drugs.
There have also been complaints that widened definitions of several disorder have led to over-diagnosis of conditions such as bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Now, Insel has said in a blog post published by the NIMH that he wants a complete shift to diagnoses based on science not symptoms. |
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Nicholas Ameyaw-Akumfi |
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Anger: The Enemy In Us
by Nicholas Ameyaw-Akumfi
Anger Patterns are Learned from our Parents
Children learn how to be in relationships from their parents through a process of social learning, and especially observational learning. They adapt the behaviors they see their parents do. The children in the family watch their parents and learn positive as well as dysfunctional coping styles in dealing with stress and threat. Research studies show that there are three social skills that create happy marriages: problem solving, emotional distress regulation and conflict management. Expression of positive words, maintaining a pleasant attitudes and the avoidance of conflict and negativity are other major skills in creating happy unions. |
People, who have poor coping skills in handling internal emotional distress, often become anxious or angry.
Aggression is learned behavior. Children raised in families with above average in rates of violence are at greater risk for being physically aggressive toward their romantic partner. Violence is passed down through the generations. Parental physical punishment of the adolescent has been associated with later dating violence. Increased risk for overall antisocial behavior in general in turn increases risk for aggression toward a romantic partner. Children, who aggressively fight with their siblings, can carry this destructive fighting pattern over to their adult years.
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Tessie Brooks wonders how society can gasp at the thought of children being abused at the
Nova Scotia
Home for Colored Children, but fail to honour her
story now that she's an adult. |
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Nova Scotia, Canada
The inner child still weeps
Accounts of sexual abuse at the Home for Colored Children echo with the sting of anguish
by EVA HOARE
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Tessie Brooks is 14.
She's just run away from home, and been lured into sleeping with an older man.
Soon, the authorities come calling and she lands in the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children on the outskirts of Dartmouth. |
In the two years that follow, she'll become a “lover” of a worker there, having sex with him up to five times a week in the back of his car, or in the locked third-floor “sick room” at the home, or behind Graham Creighton Junior High School just down the road.
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What makes some people,
such as Vincent van Gogh,
desire death in the first place? |
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The Suicide Epidemic
Self harm now takes more lives than war, murder and natural disasters combined. Why are we killing ourselves and how can we stop it?
by Tony Dokoupil
www.TheDailyBeast.com/Why-Suicide-Has-Become-An-Epidemic
Need help? In the U.S. call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
WHEN THOMAS Joiner was 25 years old, his father — whose name was also Thomas Joiner and who could do anything — disappeared from the family's home. At the time, Joiner was a graduate student at the University of Texas, studying clinical psychology. His focus was depression, and it was obvious to him that his father was depressed.
Six weeks earlier, on a family trip to the Georgia coast, the gregarious 56-year-old—the kind of guy who was forever talking and laughing and bending people his way—was sullen and withdrawn, spending days in bed, not sick or hungover, not really sleeping.
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‘Mortal Sins' an unflinching look at priest sex abuse scandal
by Michael D. Langan
NEWS BOOK REVIEWER
Pulitzer Prize winner Michael D'Antonio's new book “Mortal Sins” will be the gold standard for unraveling what happened during the Catholic priests' sex abuse scandal of the last three decades. D'Antonio's balanced exposition and analysis is the equivalent of a cleansing shower on a disturbing period in church history that will reverberate for 100 years or more.
The monumentality of the evil laid out in “Mortal Sins” will gag readers. While there is no prurience in the writing, the matter-of-factness of the sexual activity is jaw-dropping. The crimes documented include a fact pattern of enormous proportion. The doggedness of those who pursued justice is admirable. |
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Carol D Levine - Survivor / Thriver / Activist
with her Blue Ribbon campaign poster |
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Carol D. Levine - in the news !
Over 30 years in recovery, and 85% healed
by Bill Murray
One of our most committed NAASCA volunteers, red headed Carol D. Levine has been on her healing journey from a devastating childhood for over 30 years, and jokes that most of the time she's 85% healed.
She's not only the co-host of the 90 minute, Monday to Friday, "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk show but also participates on the panel of NAASCA volunteers who appear on 2 two hour "Community Matters" - This Week show on Sunday nights (where the discussion is the child abuse related news from the previous week.
When she's not on the air she's hard to keep up with, as Carol's all over NW New Jersey (where she lives) and NE Pennsylvania, raising awareness of the issues of child abuse prevention, intervention and recovery, and demanding that community members recognize the need to be "pro-active." |
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Surviving Sexual Abuse Takes Courage and Hope
Carter Lee writes to his fellow child abuse survivors
by Bill Murray
Carter Lee could be described as a man of many talents .. many passions .. but chief among them is his desire to help others who've suffered, as he has, from childhood sexual abuse and trauma.
He's the author of When Jonathan Cried For Me, a child sex abuse survivor and spokesman, host of Carter Lee Presents the Fever, an entrepreneur and more.
We're proud to count Carter as a member of the NAASCA family. He's a regular on our "Stop Child Abuse Now" talk shows and contributes newspaper and magazine articles like this one to our Featured Articles section. |
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But Carter's also involved behind the scenes, completely unselfish with his time, his talents and his resources, as he quietly champions our cause.
We're eternally grateful for all he contributes to NAASCA.
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1st Million March - Monday, April 22, 2013
NAASCA Urges Participation - In Cities Across The Country
by Bill Murray - Our children need a voice!
From Facebook:
MACA is a non-partisan, grass roots, nationwide effort, to UNITE ALL Child Advocates together in solidarity on April 22, 2013 for peaceful demonstrations against child abuse and crimes against children in the U.S. Description April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. We seek to raise awareness of and ask for tougher sentencing for violent crimes against children in the U.S. |
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The Innocence Revolution
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Sunday, April 14th |
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The Innocence Revolution
NAASCA Urges Participation
by Bill Murray
Many NAASCA members are planning to participate in any number of Child Abuse Awareness celebrations planned as part of The Innocence Revolution on Sunday, April 14th. TIR events of all kinds are scheduled across America & around the world.
Please Join us !!! |
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Ruben Rosario - Pioneer Press columnist |
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Ruben Rosario
"about a little boy"
by Bill Murray
We talk to many child abuse survivors every week, and hear from even more, yet we were so impressed by the following newspaper column that we felt compelled to ask Ruben to appear as a special guest on our Internet-based "Stop Child Abuse Now" (SCAN) talk radio show on March 14, 2013.
We've re-printed the original autobiographical newspaper column here below, his thoughtful and well-written story "about a little boy."
We'll also offer you a direct link to the 90 Minute "on demand" version of Ruben's appearance on the talk show: Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 529 |
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 America has an incest problem
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America Has an Incest Problem
People are rightly horrified by abuse scandals at Penn State and in the Catholic church. But what about children who are molested by their own family members?
by Mia Fontaine -- The Atlantic -- Jan 24, 2013
Last year offered plenty of moments to have a sustained national conversation about child sexual abuse: the Jerry Sandusky verdict, the BBC's Jimmy Savile, Horace Mann's faculty members, and a slew of slightly less publicized incidents. President Obama missed the opportunity to put this issue on his second-term agenda in his inaugural speech. |
Child sexual abuse impacts more Americans annually than cancer, AIDS, gun violence, LGBT inequality, and the mortgage crisis combined—subjects that Obama did cover.
Had he mentioned this issue, he would have been the first president to acknowledge the abuse that occurs in the institution that predates all others: the family. Incest was the first form of institutional abuse, and it remains by far the most widespread.
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Pennsylvania
Human trafficking still a problem
by Tammie Gitt
The anger in Krista Hoffman's voice is unmistakable when she starts talking about victims of human trafficking. |
The dark side of Asian massage parlors has become a standing joke in our culture, she said, but think about what these women have gone through.
They are transported in from another country, maybe thinking that a legitimate job awaits them in the United States.
They don't speak the language.
They have no support network.
They've been broken, like you'd break a wild horse, Hoffman said, her words coming fast and sharp.
Then they are sent to locations along the East Coast and into the Midwest to have sex with paying customers. |
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The Price of a Stolen Childhood
by EMILY BAZELON
The detective spread out the photographs on the kitchen table, in front of Nicole, on a December morning in 2006. She was 17, but in the pictures, she saw the face of her 10-year-old self, a half-grown girl wearing make-up. The bodies in the images were broken up by pixelation, but Nicole could see the outline of her father, forcing himself on her. Her mother, sitting next to her, burst into sobs.
The detective spoke gently, but he had brutal news: the pictures had been downloaded onto thousands of computers via file-sharing services around the world. They were among the most widely circulated child pornography on the Internet. Also online were video clips, similarly notorious, in which Nicole spoke words her father had scripted for her, sometimes at the behest of other men. For years, investigators in the United States, Canada and Europe had been trying to identify the girl in the images. |
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H. R. 6655 |
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Protect Our Kids Act Passed By Congress (with tiny funding; 2M)
by Mike Tikkanen -- INVISIBLE CHILDREN
January 7, 2013
For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know I am critical of the lack of protection (concern) this nation has for its most vulnerable citizens. Other than the “Imminent Harm Doctrine” which allows the court to take children from life threatening circumstances, there is no federal protection for children in this nation. This is a step in the right direction. Thank you Texas Rep Lloyd Doggett for introducing this bill. |
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From the Alliance for Children & Families website; The law creates a national commission to examine child fatalities, which the findings state are both preventable and significantly underreported, while the states lack a national standard for reporting. In previous hearings, members of Congress heard testimony about the significant gaps in reporting that prevent effective policies and practices from being implemented.
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Fair? / UNfair?
With civil commitment, child-pornography offenders can be imprisoned indefinitely, lest they molest children when released. |
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The New Yorker
Annals of Crime
The Science of Sex Abuse
Is it right to imprison people for heinous crimes they have not yet committed?
by Rachel Aviv
On a Saturday night in the summer of 1998, an undercover officer logged in to a child-pornography chat room using the screen name Indy-Girl. Within minutes, a user named John introduced himself and asked her, “Are you into real life or just fantasy?” Indy-Girl said that because of the “legality of it” she had never acted on her fantasies. But she soon revealed an adventurous spirit. She was a bisexual college sophomore, she said, and had learned about sex at an early age. “My mother is very European,” she explained.
John, a thirty-one-year-old soldier stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, had been using the Internet for less than a year. He began downloading child pornography after watching a television special about how Internet child porn had become epidemic. He hadn't realized that it existed. |
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preventing child abuse means
understanding pedophilia |
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United Kingdom
If we want to keep children safe from sexual harm, then surely knowing what we're dealing with would be a good first step
Pedophilia is one of those things that appear straightforward at first glance but get more and more confusing the closer one looks. |
It is broadly defined as adult sexual attraction to children and young people below the legal age of sexual consent. That means a pedophile is someone who is primarily or exclusively sexually attracted to children (although they may also be sexually attracted to adults as well). That much is relatively simple, at least as long as we can agree on what a ‘child' is and when a child turns into a sexually mature, self-determining adult; a transition we place, in this country, at the age of 16.
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learning over 50 years |
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The Battered-Child Syndrome: 50 Years Later
by Larry Wolff - Director, NYU Center for European and Mediterranean Studies
The year 2012 has provided the occasion for looking back 50 years to some of the historical and cultural landmarks of 1962, from Vatican II and the Cuban Missile Crisis to the environmental warning of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the cinematic thrills of the first James Bond film, Dr. No.
Among the subdued and academic but still revolutionary events of 1962 was the publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association of the article "The Battered-Child Syndrome," which completely transformed the way we think about children in our society.
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"The Battered-Child Syndrome is a term used by us," wrote the authors, "to characterize a clinical condition in young children who have received serious physical abuse, generally from a parent or foster parent." It was only after this medical "discovery" in 1962 that child abuse was recognized as a regular and recurring aspect of family life, not a sensational exception but a common syndrome. |
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