How I Broke the Silence of Sexual Abuse

When I first began my own personal healing journey from the effects of incest and childhood sexual abuse, I began to write about all the events and memories that came pouring out of my wounded soul. I kept a journal for a long time, filling up first one book and then another. After several years, I decided it was pointless to keep all the "bad" things that had happened to me, so I burned the journals. I offered them up to God as a sacrifice of praise and a burnt offering. However, I continued to write about all the amazing things God did for me over the years as the abusive memories were worked out in my life.

One of the first things I did was begin to post some of my articles and poems on a writing website called "Themestream". Early on in my recovery process, I would write an article and post it and then go back and delete it. I felt so very exposed! As time went on, I was able to post most of my articles and poems and leave them. As members of the site began to read and comment on my articles and poems, I felt good about myself and about being able to "speak" about my abuse in a public place. After the demise of "Themestream", another site was open so I began to post on it. I was taking baby steps toward being able to tell my story and I was healing as I went along. Soon that writer's site also went under.

Then I decided to create a website of my own. So about nine years ago, I started "Healing Stream For Survivors". As time went on, I had many visitors to my website and even developed some lasting friendships out of the experience. Some friends have fallen by the wayside over the years, but a few have remained to this day.