A Special PTSD Survivors Speak

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Did you know nearly 1/3 of women report being physically or sexually abused at some point in their lives? Did you know husbands and boyfriends commit 13,000 acts of violence against women in the workplace each year? Did you know studies show 1.5 million women are battered each year?

Tomorrow Heal My PTSD, LLC, will sponsor the Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse Annual 5K Walk/Run. By participating in this event I will be able to spread the word to raise awareness about these unfortunate statistics, and also to educate the domestic abuse community about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). If you’re local come join us in Anchor Park in Delray Beach at 7:30am!

Today, we have a special survivors speak written by a woman who knows these statistics first hand, and now works to help prevent them.

Thank you for promoting AVDA and the important work that we do to help women heal and emerge as self sufficient, abuse free members of society.

I have been with AVDA for over twelve years. I am a past president and a present board member. I was drawn to the organization when I came to Boca Raton, FL, as a retired person looking to volunteer in an organization where I could relate to women and share the knowledge I gained from living my life.

I was divorced at 31 from an alcoholic and had two small children to support on my own. I had to go on welfare for about a year until I found a job in medical sales. That job became a rewarding career. I, too, had a PTSD that I buried deep inside. I was sexually abused as a five year old and exhibited the behavior associated with sexual abuse. I entered therapy in my mid thirties because I was falling in love with my present husband and thought I was going crazy. I have cured myself but every once in a while I think of what happened to me and how at times it effects me. I have three grandchildren that I pray never experience what I did.

My work with AVDA is healing, therapeutic and rewarding. One of the many programs that the agency has is a mentoring program that uses women from our community to teach life skills and technical skills to the women in our shelter and transitional housing. Just last night I mentored three women, two are brand new residents and the other a woman who has a job and is about to get her own place with her five children after spending two years with us. The two new women were still suffering from their abuse. One told me that this was the seventh time she had left her husband. I told her that statistically a woman leaves her abuser seven times before she leaves for good. She assured me that she was gone from him forever.

We also got to talking about how living at the shelter is so therapeutic and rehabilitating. We have many in house programs that educate our women to lead violence free, self sufficient lives, to become better parents and to become part of the workforce. At the shelter the women speak of the love and caring they get from each other and from the staff, which is for some the affection and interaction they have lacked for so long. AVDA also has out reach programs for women and school based programs to stop violence among our children.

AVDA is such an important organization to support. Violence is a blot on our society and we must do our share to stop it. The AVDA 5K Run/Walk raises money for us to continue our work. We only have two fund raising events a year one being the race on Oct. 10th and the other is our Heart of a Woman Luncheon to be held on Feb. 9th,2010.

Thank you for your interest and support.
Arlene Hyman

Tags: aid to victims of domestc abuse, avda, post-traumatic stress, ptsd