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.