Why child sex trafficking?
This morning I was asked what makes me so passionate about this issue.
I mean more than the average sane person, that finds this disturbing.
In truth even the thought of child sex trafficking makes me want to cry!
I work with women and men every single day and hear horror stories about child sexual abuse and the damage that gas been done to their lives.
I myself was sexually abused as a child and so I feel deeply and have felt the impacts of this kind of betrayal by those older than me and the betrayal of my own body.
But thats just child sexual abuse…
The sad thing is that I’ve heard more than my fair share of stories of child sex trafficking. Yes, we think that it doesn’t happen in our neighborhood, our town, our upper or middle class social groups. We think of this happening in back alley streets and to children without much parental support.
Think again!
I live in one of the top areas in the nation for child sex trafficking and it is one of the more affluent areas in the nation.
For years I worked with teenagers as a therapist with children with drug/alcohol addictions. One story amongst MANY in my years working as a therapist and now as a coach has stuck with me.
It was a 16 year old girl that was sold by her uncle for years, put constantly under the influence of drugs/alcohol to keep her from fighting back and then taken to meet her uncles “friends” throughout her childhood. Finally when things had escalated when she was about 14yrs old she was rescued a few miles away from the border of Mexico when her uncle was trying to sell her off for good. Saying she had been kidnapped. This girl and now woman would never be the same from the massive abuse. It was the scenario we immediately think of when talking about such issues.
But what about the little girl/boy that is sold off in the middle of the day for a few hours at the aquarium, park, dressing room, etc.
About the child that is an INFANT and doesn’t even have control over there body but is being sold before they are done breastfeeding and will never know life without abuse.
There are so many stories and it is happening in your neighborhood!
Believe me… or don’t….
But that doesn’t changed the facts. It doesn’t changed the men and women that I deal with, in my practice, that will never be the same!
Abuse changed the mind and body for a lifetime.
It changes the way you process information.
It changes the way you interact in relationships.
It changes the level in which you can trust and rewires your nervous system.
The way you experience touch is different
Your awareness of the world and your surroundings is forever heightened
Your connection to pleasure and sex and love are all kinds of mixed up.
So why am I so passionate??
Because I find it despicable and disgusting that any grown man or woman would choose to inflict those things on a child and/or profit from those behaviors.
I find it ignorant that so many people close there eyes to these atrocities and think that by ignoring it the problem will go away.
I find it heartbreaking that so many children each year are forever changed and will be grown adults still dealing with the massive fallout.
So today I ask you to do a little research. Educate yourself. And find a little more passion for this issue.
Because it very well COULD be your child and very well could be happening right under your nose or right next door.
And educate yourself on the brain changes and ramifications that are the fallout of such abuse…. because that person you think is a little “weird”, “jumpy”, “disconnected”, “not trusting” or a “bum”…
Could be someone that life was forever changed before they ever had a choice….
And you would never know!
Recover Your Life…
Recover The Children’s Lives!
Addison
