During this episode of Raw and Real podcast, host Linda Piazza discusses an extremely sensitive subject that she finds hard to talk about, abuse. She talks about the trauma around abuse, the lifelong challenges it causes if you do not get help. She wants to make sure you know whatever the abuse is that you have experienced or witnessed is not your fault. Trauma comes in all shapes, sizes and forms. It does not discriminate and can happen to anyone.

Episode Highlights:

• Trauma is a type of loss in life
• Linda is letting you know this is a particularly important topic that is hard to talk about
• Trauma is caused by many things and impacts a person life forever if not dealt with
• People are fearful of facing trauma and the things that have happened in their lives that have caused trauma
• Linda talks about how children will look at abuse not as trauma but something that is not nice that is happening to them or to someone they love
• As a child trauma is blocked or buried to be able to forget what has happened so you can survive because there is so much emotion around what has happened
• Trauma often occurs later in life when something triggers a memory and stops us in our tracks
• Dealing with what has happened in the past that has caused trauma or our avoidance of it, we call that denial sometimes
• Some who has been abused is a victim
• There are many types of abuse that causes trauma in our lives like physical, emotional, sexual abuse that happens to you or someone else
• Sometimes the abuse is being a witness to abuse happening to someone else
• People many times feel like if they are invisible the abuse will stop, they blame themselves
• Trust can be a challenge when one is a victim of abuse
• Linda talks about children and the difficulty and challenges they face by all forms of abuse and how it can affect them later in life
• A person must deal with the trauma and abuse in their lives or it will dictate your life for the rest of your life
• Linda tells a story of an incident that occurred when she was a child
• Linda talks about her experience from her story and wonders what impact it had on her life as an adult
• Linda made a point about protecting children from over hearing things that can cause them fear or concerns, something that was not thought about years ago
• Linda is letting you know this subject is above her paygrade and encourages you to seek help from a professional
• Understand, don’t judge people you don’t know what they are dealing with
• The cycle of abuse continues through generations unless one of the victims stand up and stop it
• Many times, a person, child or adult feel a responsibility for not protected someone who is being hurt or abused. That is a huge load
• Trauma and abuse can lead to, depression, suicide, heaviness
• If you know someone dealing with any of this offer to help them is someway, get them the professional help they need
• Linda makes it clear that the abusers’ actions are horrible and they are selfish and they need help, their actions are not acceptable.
• Divorce, alcoholism, drug abuse causes a lot of trauma in the family
• Do not avoid so you can live a full, happy joyful life, you deserve to be happy
• Linda advises getting help is not a stigma, do not continue to be their prisoner
• Linda encourages you to get out there and have your best life and stop the vicious cycle

3 Key Points:

You are good enough, don’t let someone make you feel less

You do not deserve to be abused; you did nothing to deserve to be mistreated, it’s   not your fault.

Make it stop with you, get off the merry go round of family abuse.

Resources Mentioned:

• Linda’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sassy_yankee
• Raw and Real Podcast: https://rawandrealpodcast.podbean.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/podcastrawandreal

Suggested Books:

• A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer
• Healing from Hidden Abuse by Shannon Thomas
• Boundaries by Henry Cloud
• Co Dependent No More by Melody Beattle
• Unashamed by Christine Caine

Hot line:

• National Domestic Hotline www.thehotline.org 1 800 799 7233
• Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline 800-422-4453
• National Suicide Prevention Hotline 800 272 8255
• Helplines for Victims of Crime: List of Hotlines, Phone Numbers and Websites www.ovc.gov.gov