childabusesurvivor.net

I’ve seen some chatter about some child abuse advocacy groups having their pages deleted by Facebook recently, and out of curiosity, I decided to dig into their other social media accounts to see if that may have been justified. And yes, there are far, far too many child abuse advocates who’ve been perfectly willing to continue sharing the same, false, conspiracy theories. How many continued to share these theories well after they were disproved in some bizarre effort to show how much more they cared about children, while diverting attention and resources from real victims and organizations trying to help them. Also, for at least one of these groups, who shall remain nameless, you might also take this as an opportunity to spend less time and effort building a following on a platform that you don’t own, and maybe take some time adding something more recent than 2018 on your own website.

On Thursday morning, I woke up, and sent an email to my boss, his boss, and our department head saying that I wouldn’t be participating. In short, I feel like I am all of the things that I tell other people that they aren’t when they’re not OK. There are tears in my eyes as I type this, admitting to my own failings, knowing that there are people out there, and in my own home, worried that I’m not going to be OK, and because of my shame at needing help, despite years of telling others that there’s no shame in it. I hope I will, and as I told one of those folks checking in on me about the wine the company sent me to enjoy during this event, when I do find a positive way to channel this anger towards making change in the world, I will pop the cork and drink it then.

I’ve talked about how these small acts keep people connected, let them know that they are not alone, and allow us to get outside of our own anxiety about everything going on in the world, and take control of one small thing we can do to make a positive difference. Well, as we start of 2021, here’s something you can do that would help not only me, but potential people in your social circles who are feeling alone right now. ’s life, right now, simply by sharing something you read online that made you think of them? You’d be doing something nice for them, nice for the site that is putting out the content, and nice for your own mental health.

Recently, a friend on Facebook decided to ask us all to share one thing that happened this year that was a positive, to try and collect any and all good news in one place. It was a good idea, and as I thought about how I would respond to something like that, I thought of some of the good things that have happened this year. Those were good things, but at the end of it all, I kept coming back to something I talked about at the end of 2019 on the Find Your Voice Podcast, and then again on this very blog on January 1 of 2020. Everything other good thing that happened this year was just gravy on top of the real meat of 2020, simply deciding every day to continue living, doing the things I need to do to say safe, sane, and alive.