Unvalidated Stories heard by Christian Leaders

The fact that these stories are unvalidated, only shows that they have not been proven to be valid but this doesn't mean that they are untrue or true.

The stories are covered by pastoral confidentiality and therefore names, etc have been changed to protect that confidentiality.

Story 1
The lady in question claims that she was ritually abused by a number of men as a child. At a later stage of her life she became unable to cope with the flashbacks and trauma of what had happened, she says she had a breakdown. She sought professional help and was eventually taken into psychiatric care. Part of her treatment that the professionals said would help was electric shock treatment, which she described as ........... awful. She then decided to deny her memories and to lie to those helping to treat her , so that they would stop treating her. She was released into the community and in her words pumped full of drugs. The police approached her because 20-25 years after the abuse enough witnesses have come forward to verify her story and investigations are underway. The treatment of the police has been more sensitive than that of the professionals and she will not now seek professional help. In fact, when dealing with professionals she finds it easier to deny the truth, in case they start to punish her again for remembering. She has only been able to share with one other person to date.

Story 2
A psychiatric nurse who was being affected by the way people in mental health care will not have open conversations with those who have been victims of ritual abuse. The nurse says that although we look into their eyes and see the pain, the matter is never addressed because the administration of the centre could not cope with the reality of the person's experiences. One imagines that they learn that their experiences should not be discussed, for society including the professionals could not cope and would employ denial as a defence mechanism.

Your Help Needed!
If you have stories that you feel would be helpful in the debate and fit this category please forward them to us and we will consider their publication.

Return to More information Index