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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo my sisters reexperiencing horrors this week.....
I have felt ill all week and I attribute it to the triggering effects of the Kavanaugh revelations. My anxiety levels are through the roof and I cant seem to concentrate on much.
I will not watch the hearings, but will check in periodically for updates.
My experience dates back to my freshman year in college, 50 years ago! I cannot image how women with more recent experiences are coping.
Stay strong and do what you need to do to get through this. There are so many of us. Im beginning to think we are not the exception, but the rule as to how women have been treated. May that soon change.
Response to Laurian (Original post)
backtoblue This message was self-deleted by its author.
Siwsan
(26,268 posts)I'm drowning in anxiety, as it is.
MuseRider
(34,111 posts)I have been sexually abused enough times to be triggered but I am also hotly angry over this and the anger is winning (thank god, it is so much easier to live with than the feelings of being triggered by what some creep, inhumane men did to me).
calimary
(81,313 posts)I haven't had that experience that you've had. For which I'm grateful. But I have been on the verge of tears, listening to her, since this started.
dlk
(11,569 posts)This is a time for women to reach out and support each other
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)I now realize that this has been an ongoing free-for-all thing by elite males, who have been getting away with this since began. And attacking the women who dare report it. And doing the vile deeds in private, so no witnesses.
We have seen over 50 women come forward about Bill Cosby, and STILL men will not believe them.
It's time this stops. It's time more and more women report these things. I did not, so I know why we don't. But only if women start reporting these incidents will the denigration of the women finally lessen and hopefully stop.
And VOTE more women and non-privileged men into office.
SouthernLiberal
(407 posts)I was sexually assaulted by family members in my childhood and teenage years.Nothing as bad as what happened to Dr. Ford,but with all this in the news... well, it does come back. The first time, I was in grade 4 or 5, and I wanted to tell. But my mother did not want to hear it.
Haggis for Breakfast
(6,831 posts)But who were never able to speak out, even to this day, are in so much pain today.
Being re-traumatized all over again. Immobilized. Unable to think. Unable to eat. Unable to sleep. Unable to stop the tears. Alone and betrayed.
A mother's first and foremost responsibility is to protect her children. Not all mothers did. Some allowed their second husbands to assault and brutalize their child. Then refused to listen. Then expected too much from a 12 year old.
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)I can't watch, just checking in periodically to see how it's going.
HipChick
(25,485 posts)flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts)Same reason.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)and lost my shit.
Like you, this is taking me back to my freshman year of college, when I was 17 years old. On top of a variety of other stressors I am dealing with right now, I can't face this, can't face the way I've blamed myself for 25 years...
Dr Ford shouldn't have to do this, to tell this story in front of the nation, confronted by the faces of the men who have perpetuated this treatment of girls and women, who have protected each other from even having to recognize how wrong it is, how damaging it is... But we need a reckoning as a society about this. And as individual women who have carried these nightmares with us for too long, we need to heal.
Thanks to Dr. Ford for forcing the nation to confront this.
And thanks for this post.
KT2000
(20,583 posts)so we can learn what happened in the hearing without having to watch.
recentevents
(93 posts)mahina
(17,668 posts)Imua. (Onward)
richo
(1 post)I was supposed to have the day off but after watching this morning I decided to go into work because I needed the distraction. In 27 years nothing triggered me like watching the attacks on Dr. Ford. Rough day for sure.