It’s The End of the World

This blog was written by Adults Sexually Abused by Priests (ASAP)

Life just keeps getting crazier. Or maybe it just seems that way because we have so many more images coming our way in so many forms.

I’m going to refrain from being political, but….Holy Heck, Batman. Whatta week.

I live with someone who has the news running on TV a lot. I can feel it affecting me physically and emotionally so I try to take it in little bits, but I can’t listen to things over and over again. And I feel like you have to sift through to find facts and anything decent in the world. There’s so much that’s horrible.

That’s why when I did find some good news, I wanted to pass it along here.

Did anyone read about the five year old boy who attacked some armed home invaders that were going after his mother? All this little guy knew was that nobody was gonna hurt his mom. He threw his toys at the men and then grabbed ahold of one of the men’s arms and wouldn’t let go. The men left them alone and the family was not harmed. A five year old. A baby. His love and determination gave him the strength to fight back. May not truly be a “happy” story, but it is a story where good wins out over evil and that doesn’t happen often enough. And whenever good wins, it brings a bit of hope to the world

Sometimes I think I don’t get triggered like a lot of folks because I was not physically harmed. But there are things that truly affect me because I can feel the sensations seeing the image or hearing the story bring about. And it doesn’t have to be anything truly awful for me to become uncomfortable.

I read this week about how people get hooked by the love bombing of the Narcissist. And this is nothing to be ashamed of. The Narcissist/Predator has evil on their mind. But they use kindness and sharing and compliments as bait. And like a drug dealer, once they see you are hooked, they keep coming back, but they begin to manipulate when and how much “love” you will receive. This kind of mind play can affect anyone, but can you imagine what devastation it can bring to someone who grew up with no secure connection to anyone or to someone to whom love was conditional? To believe love is not something you deserve but something that you have to earn and that can be taken from you if you fail….and to fall into this trap….can be life-threatening.

This is what keeps me fighting….I know what that devastation feels like. I know too what it’s like to have someone tell you that it’s your fault.

Which brings you right back to the belief that no matter what you do, you will never do enough…be enough….and the self-hatred threatens to finish the job of destruction started at the hands of an evil, unfeeling manipulative liar. The coward knew they would destroy you. And they didn’t care about that. They did care, however, that you were “fun” and that you entertained them and amused them. And they made damn sure that nobody would believe you.

And this is not just done by priests and it is not just done by men. But when a priest does it, people are more likely to believe them and to turn against you.

I continue to move, inch by inch helping survivors because I am mad as hell. I am angry for every adult who has been abused and has had their child snatched from their arms or have had their church turn against them and call them names. I am angry every time someone in power calls a woman “cute” when she is doing her job. I am angry when a victim is afraid that people will find out what happened or they change their career goal because they have been traumatized. I am angry when someone asks me if perhaps I came on to the priest. And I am angry when someone is left alone and ripped apart from the inside with nobody who will talk to them because they don’t want to lose their job by speaking out. And I am angry at the games and the cover-ups.

Wow….I didn’t know all of that was in there. Guess I’m angry. It’s not nice to be angry, is it? We should probably do yoga or meditate to get rid of that feeling.

But you know what? Sometimes it’s also healthy to cry, to yell, to scream, to run, to punch a pillow. Or to write. Because every feeling matters.

I may have mentioned that I don’t get angry often. Or at least I don’t express anger often. It’s gotten a bit easier over the years, but I don’t often have a good, gut cleansing…..I feel tons more anger than I do fear….how dare you…burst of honest anger.

Express instead of repress (or depress). Outward.

And this one time, I was with my two boys when they were probably like around 9 and 6 years old and we were at a park by a ball field and this group of kids came by. There was a mob mentality going on. About six kids or so were going after this one boy….I mean, really angry and wanting to hurt him.

So the meek little mom in me tried to reason with the boys….”Stop that guys, you are going to hurt him….stop!”

One of the boys who was on the attack turned around and looked at me and said “F*** you, lady!”

And at that moment, I just felt a surge of white hot anger come from somewhere and I swear, a part of me that I didn’t know was in there said…..”What?! What did you say to me? Don’t you EVER talk to ME like that!”

You could hear a pin drop. They were in shock.

The moment had passed. I too was in shock. It wasn’t planned, but it worked. They stopped beating this kid and the kid who got mouthy apologized to me.

The thing that felt great in that moment was that I didn’t think….I didn’t feel like I needed to forgive anyone….I got angry and because I was able to express that feeling, a potentially dangerous situation changed.

I want to harness some of that feeling again. I want everyone to harness some of that power of expressing that emotion again. Because they are getting away with it. Those who are abusing others. Right now. They are hurting someone right now. The person who hurt you may be doing the same thing to someone else.

I don’t know about you, but that makes me angry.

Comment here privately with the name of the person who abused you so our list can grow. I think you can email me here as well. Let’s come together and fight back.

Have a wonderful and safe week and don’t forget to answer this week’s poll….it’s an important one….

Read more and take the poll at Adults Abused By Priests.