Supporting MST Survivors
Robert: The demons that I dealt with was the nightmares of the rape.
Charles: Community is critical. Robert shared a lot of the sources of his pain that he was seeking to self-medicate from.
Robert: I didn't know that I was wounded, but they showed me that I was wounded.
Nadine: It was just him and me, so I couldn't report it. Who's going to believe me? He was very respected and stuff like that, so I felt like I was suffering in silence. And basically, I was.
Robert: I was raped in prison. I was still dealing with some stuff and not letting her in.
Vanessa: I was like, "What is going on? Why are you acting like this?"
Robert: It was at that point where she wanted to walk away from the marriage.
Vanessa: That's when he realized he needs to tell me what's going on, and we need therapy.
Matt: I was held hostage. I was beaten, and I was raped. My thoughts with starting a new career, and all the excitement was gone. I knew if I would say something, that would definitely end my career, as I knew it.
Jennifer: So, I just kind of held it inside, and I didn't talk about it for 10 years. So I ended up getting another female doctor, and it took a little while, but I finally opened up to her. And then she put me in group therapy, and that's when I was able to see that I wasn't alone.
Robert: Went to my mental health provider. Asked her, "Could I get into family therapy?"
Vanessa: I understand it now, and I try to figure out what triggers it.
Robert: Love you.
Vanessa: I love you, too.
Nadine: We all felt empowered, because there's other women like us that had experienced the same thing. It was consoling to have other people that you can identify with.
Jennifer: It's given me lifelong friends and a lifelong community to bond with and understand that I'm not alone.
Matt: Once I started believing that these people were trying to help me, and I started trusting them, that's when things really started to look up for me.
Charles: The trauma and the pain that we've experienced, we have to work through it, in community with others.
