Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2743

Tonight's special guest is Crista Johnston from Nashville, Tennessee, a child abuse survivor, an activist and a future writer. Christa was adopted when she was 3 weeks old, " .. to take care of my adoptive dad's sexual gratification needs," (for all the things her adoptive mother would not do). "So I was raped hundred of times," she says, beginning at 4 or 5 and lasting for 8-9 years. "I was trafficked, exploited, enslaved, and abused mentally, emotionally, physically and sexually." After she came forward to the police and confessed, but they did nothing, and her father was allowed back into the house in 30 days. "Pure hell! I felt fear, hurt, and betrayed," she explains. "I moved from home as soon as I graduated from high school and moved to Chicago 10 years later." Crista reports, "I have anxiety, depression, insomnia, and C-PTSD and have been in therapy since I was 13 years old. "But I really started healing when I had my abuser arrested last year on my birthday. Now I look forward to healing on a daily basis for the rest of my life." Crista is moving forward. "I just completed a training where I am now a Tennessee Certified Peer Recovery Specialist. I am working with mental health diagnosis, specializing in Trauma and Child Abuse. I want to help survivors heal because my case is the second in all of TN that had my abuser arrested after decades (there is an 11 year window with no SOL). I have spoken about my abuse in groups which has only happened over the past year. I am no longer ashamed of what happened to me." She's working on her new website: www.fromvictimtosurvivor.org, and hopes to write her memoir, a 'tell all' book.