Along with the trust issues, one of the hardest parts to deal with is the feeling of not being believed or supported, especially by your own grandparents and extended family. When I have been through so much pain and hurt and have to live with the scars every day, I get angry knowing that others think it is all made up or they brush it off because my cousin was a teenager. I was ten when I was first sexually abused by my cousin, and a majority of my relatives have taken the perpetrator's side. I have cried many times about everything and how my relatives gave no support or love to me as a kid when this all came out. Not one relative ever came up to that innocent little girl I was and said I am sorry for what you went through or I am here for you. Instead they said hurtful things: Oh he was young. That is what kids do. It is not like he was some older man you didn't know. Why does age make a difference? It is a sick way of thinking. Sexual abuse is sexual abuse. What is wrong with this picture? It brings tears to my eyes the way my relatives have reacted to this and cannot accept the truth. Denial is where they would rather stay.

~ Erin Merryn

Erin Merryn Abuse Survivor Child Rape Child Sexual Abuse Child Sexual Abuse Survivor Coping Denial Disbelief Disclosure Dysfunctional Families Dysfunctional Family Family Incest Issues Lack Of Support Minimization Molest Molestation Molested Pedophile Protectors Rape Sexual Abuse Society Denial Survivor Triggers Trust

Let's be honest, the world's always been a scary place with very little charm. I try to brush it off as I've brushed off the flu, as I brushed off the death of my father when I was young, as I've brushed off so much since Benton has known me.

~ Patricia Cornwell

Patricia Cornwell Bereavement Death Denial Minimization Tragedy World World View

It is indeed the truth of the traumatic experience that forms the center of its psychopathology; it is not a pathology of falsehood or displacement of meaning, but of history itself” (p. 5)

~ Cathy Caruth

Cathy Caruth History Minimization Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Reality Society Denial Trauma Truth

She's terrified that all these sensations and images are coming out of her — but I think she's even more terrified to find out why. Carla's description was typical of survivors of chronic childhood abuse. Almost always, they deny or minimize the abusive memories. They have to: it's too painful to believe that their parents would do such a thing.

~ David L. Calof

David L. Calof Abuse Abuse Survivors Abusive Childhood Abusive Parents Avoidance Child Abuse Child Rape Childhood Abuse Defense Mechanism Denial Denial Of Abuse Denial Of Child Abuse Denial Of Incest Dissociated Amnesia Dissociative Amnesia Fear Of Truth Flashback Flashbacks Healing Healing Abuse Healing From Abuse Healing Insights Incest Intrusive Minimization Minimizing Minimizing Issues Parental Abuse Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Psychological Defence Ptsd Reliving The Past Sadistic Abuse Subconscious Subconscious Mind Survivors Trauma Memories Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Memories Traumatized

The experience of chronic abuse carries within it the gross mislabeling of things. Perpetrators are really nice daddies. Victims are evil and seductive (at the age of three!). Nonprotecting parents are tired and busy. The survivor makes a giant leap forward when [he or ]she can call abuse by its right name and grasp the concept that what was done was a manifestation of the heart of the perpetrator, not the heart of the victim.

~ Diane Mandt Langberg

Diane Mandt Langberg Abuse Abuse Survivors Abusive Family Child Abuse Survivors Denial Of Abuse Minimization Mislabelling Nonprotecting Perpetrators Rrecovery From Abuse Survivors Survivors Of Abuse Therapy Therapy For Rape Victims

Denial and minimizing is often seen in genuine PTSD and, hence, should be a target of detection and measurement.

~ Harold V. Hall

Harold V. Hall Denial Diagnosis Malingering Mental Disorder Mental Health System Mental Illness Minimization Minimizing Minimizing Issues Misdiagnosis Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Psychiatry Ptsd Stigma

Rape is so particularly traumatic and so meaningful in so many ways, that there’s something about using the word in other contexts that diminishes the reality of it, and the impact it has on women’s lives.

~ Sandra Brindley

Sandra Brindley Minimization Rape Rape Culture Say No To Rape Jokes Sexual Violence Trauma

As the incidence and fear of rape on college campuses have increased, the term rape has been generalized to mean 'misuse; diminish the effects of; steal; defeat': I just went to the mall and raped my VISA. My dad phoned this morning and raped my buzz. She raped my coat. Michigan got raped by Carolina in the NCAA final. The extension of the term rape to such contexts ameliorates the word and appears a denial on the part of college students of the seriousness of the crime.

~ Connie C. Eble

Connie C. Eble Denial Minimization Misuse Of Language Rape Society Denial

Mind Your Language in the Presence of PatriachsQ. When is rape not rape? A. When it is your father or stepfather.

~ S. Caroline Taylor

S. Caroline Taylor Child Rape Child Sexual Abuse Incest Minimization Rape Rape Myths

The capacity of sex offenders for denial, rationalization, and minimization of their deviant behavior is confirmed by Salter's (1995) finding that the population she has interviewed seemed rather proud of their ability to manuipulate their victims into remaining attached and loyal to them. Salter notes that frequently child abusers target their victims by calculating their probably vulnerability relative to other children, recognizing that those already being abused by others are better prey than the never-molested children.

~ Harvey L. Schwartz

Harvey L. Schwartz Child Molestation Child Molesters Child Sexual Abuse Denial Minimization Pedophiles Rapists Sex Offenders