Child Sexual Abuse Survivors Quotes

#1. Maternal absence, in one form or another, is always found in the background of the incest romance. Womens literature on incest generally treats the theme of maternal absence tragically. Mens literature trivializes it or treats it comically. And clinical literature tends to treat it judgmentally.

Judith Lewis Herman

#2. I sometimes continue to see myself in split ways; it causes me trouble and contributes to a lack of satisfaction with myself.

Maureen Brady

#3. During sexual abuse, children feel and incorporate the rage, pain, shame, and sense of perversion that the perpetrator is projecting. They take these feelings into the very core of themselves, and they are badly traumatized by the emotions surrounding the assault, as well as by the assault itself.

Renee Fredrickson

#4. There are two ways to get rich. Either get more, or want less.

Thor Duffin

#5. When we first begin to take power more directly, after long having kept our relationship to it underground...it is natural that we experience anxiety, even guilt, at putting ourselves first. These feeling let us know we are taking action; they do not need to stop us.

Maureen Brady

#6. Healing isn't just about pain. It's about learning to love yourself. As you move from feeling like a victim to being a proud survivor, you will have glimmers of hope, pride and satisfaction. Those are natural by-products of healing.

Ellen Bass

#7. Most of our informants [incest survivors] remembered their mothers as weak and powerless, finding their only dignity in martyrdom.

Judith Lewis Herman

#8. 'Modern Warfare,' 'Black Ops,' these are all the next level of video games. The people are more detailed, the fighting is more exact, and I can't speak for every gamer out there, but I know when I play, I feel like I'm actually in the game. It's that intense.

Kevin Garnett

#9. Incest is almost always a devastating experience for
the victim.

Susan Forward

#10. ...there is a particular focus of the problem faced only by men. It arises from our culture providing no room for a man as victim.

Mike Lew

#11. I thought when the abuse stopped I could move on with my life. Instead I am still running from Brian. The only difference is now I am running from him in my dreams.

Erin Merryn

#12. I am filled with truth at my center where I once held shame.

Maureen Brady

#13. Becoming a father, I think it inevitably changes your perspective of life. I don't get nearly enough sleep. And the simplest things in life are completely satisfying. I find you don't have to do as much, like you don't go on as many outings.

Hugh Jackman

#14. I spent so many years just saying what I felt without thinking about the ramifications, without understanding that I have this opinion but not everyone might share that opinion and now they don't like me because of it.

Katherine Heigl

#15. By opening the door to my life, it is my hope and mission to shed light on the hidden wounds of abuse, to end the stigma and shame associated with abuse, and to show survivors true courage, strength, inspiration, and determination.

Erin Merryn

#16. Be faithful, be vigilant, be untiring in your efforts to break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. Come what may - cost what it may - inscribe on the banner which you unfurl to the breeze, as your religious and political motto - NO COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY! NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS

William Lloyd Garrison

#17. He that cannot endure the bad will not live to see the good.

Greek Proverb

#18. Many survivors insist they're not courageous: 'If I were courageous I would have stopped the abuse.' 'If I were courageous, I wouldn't be scared'... Most of us have it mixed up. You don't start with courage and then face fear. You become courageous because you face your fear.

Laura Davis

#19. My mom called Grandma today and told her we would no longer be attending family parties. My mom told her we have had enough of being blamed for something Brian did and everyone brushing it off like it was no big deal.

Erin Merryn

#20. Writing's not always a pleasure to me, but if I'm not writing every other pleasure loses its savour.

John Braine

#21. We don't need no stinking badges!

John Belushi

#22. I look upon the gift of my life as a wondrous journey.

Maureen Brady