Hi. I've been following Curtis and Christopher of MaleSurvivor as well as the main account on Twitter for awhile now. I've read some on this site and a few posts in here, but never had the guts to post before. Maybe 140 characters is like a security thing for me, in "public places". I have a journal (blog) where I post my poetry and essays, and I've been invited to post a handful of my essays on the Good Men Project. I try to be an advocate for education and awareness of child sexual abuse, child sex trafficking, incest, and other forms of abuse, PTSD, phobias, equal rights, to start with. I'm a survivor of all of the above. I go to therapy weekly and I have a new family now, a great support system. Agoraphobia and other problems have rendered me a hermit a lot of the time. I'm also a rapid cycle bipolar, so cyclic mania periods cause as many problems sometimes as the depression side.

I'm nervous about talking to others sometimes and at other times I want to talk, so it can be kind of confusing for me. I'm bisexual (not confused or unhappy about that, quite content about it). I'm also in a polyamorous relationship, with my gay boyfriend and bi girlfriend. My girlfriend and I have four beautiful kids. My "adopted" parents are a gay couple and they all (with some trusted friends) comprise my support system, with my therapist. I've been seeing her for maybe eight or nine years now. The first year or two, nearly, I refused to talk to her. My adopted "dad" agreed to go into the sessions with me and found a therapist willing to call it "family therapy" just to get me to agree to go. I'm not fond of religion as it often attacks who and what I am, and some of my abusers were religious, but I do respect that others may hold it dear. I just ask that it not be pushed on me. Statements like "Only God can heal you" have made me feel suicidal in the past, so I do prefer to avoid excessive religious talk.

My abuse was extreme for most of my life, and I have physical handicaps from it to deal with as well as abuse fallout to navigate on my path to healing. I find it disturbing how little is known about the kind of abuse I grew up in. I hope to bring awareness and education about it, so that it can be brought to light and stopped.

Thank you for reading (if you still are, it's kind of long...)I may take awhile to reply in here.

- W.R.R. aka Ragman

Welcome WRR AKA Ragman

We're glad you found MS, and hope it leads you to further healing. All our stories are different but many of us struggle with similar issues and you touched on many of them in your post.
Read as much as you can manage without feeling overwhelmed, and post when you want to share your feelings and experiences. Good luck.

Jude

Thanks, Jude. I liked the Sinatra lyric on your signature; just snagged it on iTunes. Thanks for making me aware of it.

Welcome to Male Survivor WRR
Wow you've made such powerful introduction, you left me speechless. I'm glad that you found this site, being part of this community helped me a lot.
I'm very sorry to hear about severity of abuse that happen to you; it is tremendously inspiring knowing that you went trough a lot and that you accomplished so much including having such beautiful family. It gives me hope for better future...
Keep sharing with us brother!

Pero

Welcome, Ragman.

You've come home to your brothers.

Cant

Welcome, Ragman!

sounds like you have been through a lot and have a lot to offer.
glad you have joined us.
looking forward to hearing more and getting to know you better.

Lee