Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2686

Tonight's special guest is Simon David from Chicago, Illinois. His mother was his early perpetrator, starting the sexual abuse when Simon was 5. "It ended at age 12," he says. "Therefore, I was and am, a survivor of incest." He further explains, "My life was quite awful, as I used to feel very shamed about my body throughout the incest. I felt awkward with myself and didn't know why. In addition, I was ashamed of Mother being so ill-appearing (alcoholism), that I could not bring any friends over to play. I felt ashamed, humiliated, afraid, unsure, tense, worried, anger, confusion and terrified." Simon still works on problems. "I presently deal with many both physical and mental health issues. Many feelings are present as I deal with numerous health matters. My very first 1-1 therapy started when I began to work full time, right after college. I have been on-and-off therapy since then, depending on the availability and financial cost. I am recently back in therapy." It's gotten better. "I could say my healing journey truly started when I started therapy in my early 20s; however, I would say it started after 3 full years of therapy, when I recalled my 1st incest memory and shared it with the social worker. But this was stunted due to the serious blunder that the therapist made when he invalidated my shared memory of my mom's act, by saying that I “fabricated” it with my vivid imagination. This delayed my dealing with the memories for 12 years!" Simon concludes, "I plan to become a public speaker specifically about this topic. I have written two personal short stories about myself, bringing to the surface, some of the many effects on me from the early incest experiences."