According to this booklet, "ritual abuse" is "a calculated, systematic process whereby victims may be brainwashed and programmed, using many different techniques, to disown and distort our own sense of self and reality." In such abuse "triggers" and programming may have been placed around primary biological and survival functions, including eating, sleeping, breathing, sexuality, elimination, emotions, the five senses, and human bonding. Victims may have been forced and manipulated into breaking primary bonds to survive emotionally and physically. This may have involved forced participation in the torture, murder, dismemberment, and cannibalism of animals and humans that victims may have known and even loved. The booklet acknowledges that choosing and pursuing healing from such abuse is no easy task, since the behaviors conditioned, manipulated, and used to cope under the abuse will continue to be triggered under various circumstances. Emotional needs are so many and so intense that relationships will be difficult and frustrating to initiate and maintain. A variety of resources, groups, and persons will be required to receive the healing support needed, since no one person is likely to be capable of providing the healing love and understanding the victim seeks. Healing is the process of discovering what happened in the victimization and how victims survived emotionally. This booklet discusses the identification of survival skills and adaptive behaviors as well as the importance of self-acceptance and self-empowerment. Also included is a brochure that outlines the stages of reaction to trauma: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
Understanding Ritual Abuse: A Guide for Self-Empowerment for Ritual Abuse Survivors
NCJ Number
163855
Date Published
1994
Length
39 pages
Annotation
This booklet provides an overview of the nature of ritual abuse and suggests ways that adults who were subjected to such abuse as children can be healed from the effects of such abuse.
Abstract