Tag Archives: image based abuse

The Invisible Crutch – Long Term Emotional Support

My Journey,
Long after content has been removed that emotional element of having your most intimate images shared for all and sundry to view and comment on cuts deep!

Those emotional scars that keep you awake at night, that continue to play out in your mind like a film reel being continuously rewound  and played over and over again, is the beginning of most experiencer’s (victim) nightmare.  I tell you this experience can be very torturous for some as it plays between a ‘nightmare’ and  a ‘daymare’ and can consume your day-to-day life.

There is definitely a need for ‘long term’ emotional support and it is becoming more and more apparent how important this is, in aiding ‘a person’s road to emotional recovery and enabling them to take back their power’. Having experienced this heinous, spineless, gut wrenching, emotionally destructive crime I can ‘hold my hands up’ and say how hard at times it’s been for me – each day presenting something different and analyzing every element of your experience, self victimising, self blaming and self loathing.

If I had someone who understood what I was experiencing, what  I was feeling and how numb inside I felt, maybe I wouldn’t have set up the VOIC platform – who knows, but I definitely would have welcomed a ‘non-judgmental’ listening ear and a platform of voices that helped me through my tough days.

I didn’t have that emotional support crutch back in 2014

This quote sums it up for me:

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his/her point of view - until you climb into his/her skin and walk around in it [To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee]

Long term emotional support is an invisible but much needed resource – for some strange reason no one seems to understand how this ‘invisible light of support’, for many is a ‘life line’; a light at the end of a very dark tunnel; a spotlight in the dark or even a beacon of light. I set up victims of image crime (VOIC) for that very reason – to be able to help and make a difference, because it makes a difference to me, it helps my healing and my mental and spiritual journey to ‘taking back my power’ and my dignity.

The last 6 years I have truly come a long way and so have many others. It is time for change, we need more collaborative collective discussions that include talking about the ‘long term emotional affects’ image based sexual abuse has on experiencers.

Shattering Myths about Image Based Sexual Abuse – Clare McGlynn, Erika Rackley and Kelly Johnson

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Image-based sexual abuse thrives on myths.

Myths about motives. Myths about victims. Myths about political,  legal and institutional responses.

  • It’s only a picture, you can move on … myth!
  • It’s all illegal now anyway … myth!
  • All you need to do is report it to the police and the picture will be taken down … myth!

Our report – Shattering Myths and Lives: A Report on Image-Based Sexual Abuse – drawing on 25 interviews with victim-survivors of image-based sexual abuse concentrates on the reality of this pernicious form of sexual abuse.

Image-based sexual abuse shatters lives. A significant numbers of victim-survivors experience profound ‘social rupture’ – a major devastation that drastically alters all aspects of their lives. Take, Anna (not her real name), for example:

“My whole world just crumbled … I’m nowhere near the person I once was. That’s gone and it’s rebuilding a new part of me now … It’s torture for your soul, it really is”

Victim-survivors spoke of abuse that is constant, ongoing and relentless; that shatters not only their lives, but also the lives of those who love and support them.

And yet, the Government is proposing to wait at least three years – that is until 2022 – before making changes to the law that we know now would make a dramatic difference to victim-survivors. Such as extending the law to cover so-called ‘fakeporn’ and threats to distribute nude or sexual images without consent, to provide all victim-survivors with automatic anonymity, to provide victim-survivors, and those supporting them, with resources and support to enable them to provide bespoke technical and long-term emotional support.

ACTION IS NEEDED NOW

To provide victim-survivors with increased protections, access to justice, adequate support and to prevent further lives from being shattered by this devastating form of abuse. And if the Government truly understands this, it will take action now to correct the most egregious gaps in the law, and increase support for victim-survivors.

Read the full report here

 

Don’t Suffer Alone! Stand Up Speak Out

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Finally for the first time in 4 years I can honestly say I don’t feel alone on this journey. Its been a struggle but perseverance has been key.

VOIC now has a Facebook Group of victims that provide peer to peer support. If you are out there with no one to talk to and no one understands then why not join our group.

It’s a safe closed space and no one will judge you. Reach out and connect and don’t suffer alone. Just click on the poster to find our group.