Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 1343

Tonight's special guest is Misty Reynolds from Spokane, Washington, a NAASCA volunteer and a survivor of child hood trauma from as early as she can remember until she was 18. She'd struggled with drugs and alcohol in her teens, cleaned up briefly when she got pregnant, and had a child in her senior year. "I went through the AmeriCorps program after graduation becoming a peer model at the school," she says. "Mentoring mediating and helping my peers get out of the chaos they lived in." But that didn't last long "I picked up the bottle where my step dad left off .. still functioning day to day to life." As Misty notes, "I married my last abuser and didn't know he was a pedophile until our son was 2." She explains, "I married him so I wouldn't have to testify against him for attempted strangulation." She cleaned up briefly during her second pregnancy, but relapsed when her son was 7 months old. Eventually she sought numbness, and began using meth. I cheated on my daughter's dad with my boy's father. "The next three years are still pretty blurry except the abuse. I remember that clearly." But her trauma didn't end there. As she implies, Misty is also a survivor of domestic violence. At various times she's worked with Betty Maxwell, a DV advocate in the community where she lived. Betty wanted her help to bring other survivors into her program. "The only problem was I couldn't stop using." And no wonder. "My mom was my supplier as well as my husband. I saw no escape so I continued to use." Misty's slowly but surely building back her life now however, noting, "I haven't worked in a long time due to PTSD and barely survived my ex-husband's wrath." We know she'll do well with NAASCA.