#ptsdsavior

[brysonmaverick-blog]

California Teen Who Pimped Out Younger Girls Gets 13 years

Marc Benjamin of The Sacramento Bee writes :   An 18-year-old Hanford woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison for her role in the pimping and human trafficking of younger girls.  Hanford police detectives arrested Jelinajane Bedrijo Almario in May 2016. Though a juvenile, she was tried as an adult for human trafficking, sending threatening emails to a family member of at least one of the girls and making terrorist threats.   Please read the entire article; it is eye-opening.  A case we are involved with, spanning the last 9 months, includes dozens of female recruiters targeting hundreds of others through social media and recruiting parties. We know of one circle of people responsible for the abuse/trafficking of nearly 3000 girls and boys, many of them underage. When this group holds their parties on national holidays, the recruiters go into overdrive needing to supply hundreds of guests with young people to for sex. Not all ‘guests’ need their services as many bring their own ‘party favours’ to share and trade out for the evening. I know these numbers sound outrageous to people many don’t believe they could be true, they are. They have all we received them from the recruiters who are now in protective custody waiting to testify against the individuals involved.  To read the testimonies of the recruiters is horrific. Stories of their own abused laced with guilt-ridden confessions of trafficking others. Accounts of forced group sex and bestiality. Forced pornography and a range of other activities I don’t I feel comfortable writing about in a public document.  People often ask us how they can make a difference: 1) Share this post with your social media contacts. 2)   Support us as we run seminars  around the country raising awareness with community groups, first responders and college students. You support is tax deductible. 3) Organise an event with Give Them A Voice Foundation in your area. 4) Attending a viewing or hold a screening of the multi-award winning  documentary Stopping Traffic .  Everything counts and everything helps.  Dr John A. King

http://www.drjohnaking.com/the-voice/california-teen-pimped-younger-girls-gets-13-years/

[thejasonhype-blog]

Remember Who You Are

Remember who you are. Not where you came from, not where you are going…but who you are. If you loose sight of the who, the what you’re doing and where you’re doing it will loose its context.  Disappointment arises out of unmet expectations. Manage your expectations and you will eliminate most of your disappointments (you can’t control all the idiots out there).  People will not buy what they don’t understand. People will not support something that does not have a solution. People will not fund something that does not have an executable plan attached.  

http://www.drjohnaking.com/ptsd-recovery/remember-who-you-are/

[ptsdcollab]

Soiled

Soiled is how it feels…is how it felt.  I felt dirty when they did it to me.  I felt dirty for years afterwards.  I still feel dirty to this day.  It’s a funny feeling. It feels like you have a smudge on your face, and everyone is looking at you and talking about it. It doesn’t matter how hard you try and scrub it off, everyone can still see it. It is not like a birthmark or a scar. It is something dirty and unspeakable–something others seem embarrassed about. It is something you feel makes you a lesser man.  You simply feel…soiled.  by Dr John A. King 

http://www.drjohnaking.com/ptsd-recovery/soiled-3/

[arthuranderson63-blog]

Springtime

One of the things that we all need to remember  is that all of life is seasonal.  When the walls close in and the nights seem too dark and lonely, there is always tomorrow, springtime is coming.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/ptsd-recovery/springtime/

[liamkelly86-blog]

One day I looked up

One day I looked up                                        and there she was      d   n  i   g       a  c  n                                to the tune that                                   hummed                                 in my soul      and I knew she had always been mine    by  theAuthor  Dr John A. King

http://www.drjohnaking.com/poetry-and-art/one-day-looked/

[fbfeckers-blog]

THE END OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING STARTS WITH AWARENESS

You make choose to look the other way but you can never say again you did not know.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/the-voice/end-human-trafficking-starts-awareness/

[givethemavoice-blog]

Results Require Focus

Dealing with the frustration of not seeing progress is an essential part of the walk towards excellence in any field or endeavor.  If you want quality long-term results you need to understand that they require quality long-term focus.  Learn to enjoy and be thankful for the process. This is especially important because you will end up spending far more time on the journey than with those all too brief moments of triumph at the end.  

http://www.drjohnaking.com/ptsd-recovery/results-require-focus/

[miketurnbull86-blog]

Soar Higher a story of PTSD and recovery

Soar Higher came about as Matt (not his real name) came to me with an image already in mind. Doing his story fulfilled a wish to paint this imagery. Here is his story.  The Beginning  Matthew grew up in a small community in a very large city. Like a lot of other inner-city kids, surrounded by people who looked like him, talked the same way, had similar values, he also felt very alone. Matt was only 2 when his parents got divorced and become another statistic of single parent kids. There are many things about his childhood he doesn’t remember, but he does remember feeling lost and alone. He felt unwanted by either parent as his mom always told him he was a mistake and his father never even tried to see him. His first memory of his father was a Christmas in grade school when his father came to give his brother a present. Matt ran and hid under the bed because he didn’t even know who his father was.  Summer Camp  Matt was fortunate enough to be one of the many city kids around the United States who got to go to summer camp. Outside of the city and into the mountains, Matt felt alive and at home. He made friends, hiked, learned to scout and how to make a fire. Everything in the summer was joy until he reached the 7th grade.  You see, Matt had one close friend in the city who lived across the street. His friend wasn’t one of the kids that got to go to camp, so Matt went off to camp, knowing he would see his friend in a couple of months, but when he got home, he found that his friend had died in a horrible accident. There was no goodbye, there was nothing. In grief, he bonded with his friend’s brother, only to have that also end in tragedy. Unable to endure the grief on losing his brother, this older boy turned to drugs and then committed suicide while under the influence. Matt’s life turned a very dark corner.  Fantasy and Reality  Shortly after this, Matt was introduced to fantasy novels and was particularly enamored with The Lord of the Rings. He discovered a group that became fascinated with the dark side of the fantasy magic. The leader of this group was a White Witch. Before you scoff, Matt told me this was all very real. He saw things that scared and intrigued him at the same time. The power that he experienced made him feel powerful as well. It wasn’t long before he became involved with a form of Karate that delved into the darker, spiritual side of the martial arts. Every he experienced appealed the angry boy he had become.  The Seance  One night while in High School the group he hung out with decided to have a seance. There were two circles, an inner circle, and an outer circle. Matt was a part of the outer circle. The group had a complete setup, just like you see in the movies. Present was an ouija board, a hanging ball, and the White Witch.  As everyone chanted together, the ball began to swing. It got very cold and Matt remembers someone saying the spirit that was there was malevolent. Some of the more experienced spiritualists told everyone to stay in the circles. “Don’t break the circle” because the spirit was still there. Behind Matt was candle which had been lit. At the moment that someone cried out to stay in the circle the candle exploded. Matt was convinced of Satan and his power, he had no doubts.  The Calling  Around the same time, a drug dealer from the neighborhood suddenly began to act differently. He began to speak of God’s love. Matt had stopped going to church many years earlier. All he saw was an emptiness and a standard he knew no one could achieve. It made him bitter and angry so he left. Matt did not want to listen to this former drug dealer. How could this guy talk about love after everything he had done? But somehow Matt couldn’t get the words out of his head. Then one day the guy invited Matt to come to church. This was not even a consideration. Matt went home and Sunday night rolled around. While watching a favorite movie in the back of his mind he thought “you’ve tried everything else, why not this?” He believes now that it was God speaking to him.  Church  Matt went to church that night. He got there late, so there wasn’t much place to sit. He ended up in the third row between two joyfully loud Christians. That night Matt heard the Gospel of Christ for the first time. Sitting there with so much shame for his life, he heard about how much God loved him. He became a Christian that night. The transformation was real. He felt differently. His anger gone, his shame disappeared, Matt was a new person.  School  Matt couldn’t wait to go to school and tell his friends what happened to him. There isn’t much of a welcome, though, for a kid whose friends are Satanists when you are trying to tell them about God. Once again, Matt found himself alone. He began reading and studying the Bible and read a verse from Isaiah 40 “They that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength, they shall rise up with wings as eagles.”  The Eagle Experience  In that verse, Matt connected with something that had happened while away at camp. While hiking the campers got to the summit of a mountain. Matt was sitting on a precipice in awe of the view when he looked up and saw an eagle. Being a kid who in love with Lord of the Rings he remembered Gandalf sitting on the eagle’s back and coming to the rescue. The eagle was a symbol of beauty, power, and strength. He felt the protectiveness of the eagle from the story. It was that experience that connected Matt to the Bible verse. It became the imagery he connected most with.  The Why  When I asked Matt why he wanted his story told he had to think about it for a bit.  “Mine is not a unique story ,” he said “ My life was full of despair. There were so many friends that died or been killed. I never thought I would live very long. I guess I want people to know that the worst of roads can change dramatically. Let me say, Your life can change. It is a moment of choice, and that moment is now.”   I have known Matt for several years. We met after he had been a Christian for some time. There is no reminder of that angry young man. There is no glimpse of the PTSD he once suffered. He still has occasional nightmares, but he knows it is in the past. Matt can look at his life differently, finding joy in today and in the future. For him, I named this painting  Soar Higher .    How You Can Get Involved  If you have experienced loss and would like me to paint your story, please contact me at studio@kateshafferfineart.com This is for the Give Them A Voice Foundation. You can find the paintings for Bathed in Light, Relentless, and Beautiful Life on my website at  http://kateshafferfineart.com   Look for the “Prints” tab. You will find the sizes and prices. Contact me to order. Half the proceeds go to Give Them A Voice Foundation. To find out more about what they do and where your money goes you can visit their website  http://www.givethemavoice.foundation      Comment Below  Please post your comments below. Encourage those who have told their stories and tell us how you connect with those stories.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/the-voice/soar-higher-story-ptsd-recovery/

[imarygeorge-blog]

Go Take A Shower And Move ON

Shit doesn’t always turn into fertilizer, sometimes it  is just shit. You can stand there and try and sprout a flower or you can climb out of the hole and go have a shower and move on.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/ptsd-recovery/go-take-a-shower-and-move-on/

[thebrysonsanders-blog]

Glass in my Soul

Sometimes just the thought of facing the day feels like broken glass in my soul   Pain, frustration, discomfort should never be used as an excuse not to live, rather they are our reasons to live. They are the fuel in our engine to reclaim what was lost and to build a life  of passion and purpose.    Our motivation to get up and go one more time.   by  Dr John A. King  

http://www.drjohnaking.com/ptsd-recovery/glass-in-my-soul/

[brysonmaverick-blog]

Dad, why do women hate men?

I was sitting with my 15 year old son and he was looking at Pinterest with me, at some of my work, some of the people I interact with, and some of the material posted. He went quiet for a while, and I waited, and then he said,  “Dad, why do women hate men?”   Before I launched into the, ‘That’s not true” response, I asked myself, “Why would he say that?” For the next 2o minutes, we went through pin after pin on board after board, the vast majority similar to the one I have posted in this article.  We talked about how he had been told by female relatives that  “men are disgusting because all they want is sex.”  He talked to me about how modern music and movies and TV shows seem to make men out to be stupid and incompetent.  How all the heroes in movies had become women–he didn’t mind that, he thought Black Widow was awesome and hot and said it was cool how a girl could be awesome and hot.  Here is my question to you: Ladies, are you helping your boys grow into men, or are you molding them into your own bitter images of yourself?  I was sexually, mentally and emotionally  abused by my mother and father and their friends from the age of 4 to 16.  I remember, and I write about it in my book, that my mother would have her friends come to the house, professors on womens’ issues from the university where she worked. As a 13 year old boy, I would be made to stand and address this group of 8 women. They would tell me that I had to argue the case as to what purpose men serve. Why should we allow men to exist? What role to men play in society except as sperm donors?  They would say things like, you do nothing for me that a cucumber or a vibrator can’t do better–at least they last longer that 2 minutes.  After week upon week of humiliation and degradation, all I could do was stutter and cry. At that point, when they had finally reduced me to that, they literally shouted for joy, “See, you’re useless.”  I have two daughters, and I have raised them to love themselves, believe in themselves and to fully enjoy life in the company of men. What my mother and my father did to me has never been allowed to touch my kids. I have gone out of my way to ensure that my issues don’t become theirs…What about you?  Have you been hurt by men? Maybe you have. Badly, quite possibly. But you have never been hurt by ALL men EVERYWHERE. Saying all men are bastards is like saying all women are stupid whores and sluts.  You have no right and no justification to impose your broken view of the world on 49% of the population, most of whom you have never met. But particularly, this view imposes itself on your sons, your nephews and future son-in-laws.   What would your son or daughter think about you from your Pinterest boards or Facebook posts?  Our past can either refine us or define us. Allow your past experiences to make you a better you, so you can help raise better young men and women and end once and for all the cycle of brokenness.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/the-voice/dad-why-do-women-hate-men/

[coolbyronsummers]

Meaningful Specific

Instead of a wandering generality, be a meaningful specific.  A few good ideas tend to turn up if you generate enough bad ones.  If you don’t like the cards you have been dealt, move to a different table and play with a different deck, disengage from the narrative.  

http://www.drjohnaking.com/ptsd-recovery/meaningful-specific-2/

[ptsdcollab]

One day I looked up

One day I looked up                                        and there she was      d   n  i   g       a  c  n                                to the tune that                                   hummed                                 in my soul      and I knew she had always been mine    by  theAuthor  Dr John A. King

http://www.drjohnaking.com/poetry-and-art/one-day-looked/

[thejasonhype-blog]

Paths to Recovery

“There were two therapist sitting in a bar….” or maybe I should say, “There were a thousand therapist sitting in a bar and a massive bar fight broke out because they each had their own opinion on how WE were suppose to recover.”  Just like it is your story, it is your journey. There is no right or wrong way…there is just the journey. For me I found EMDR useful for a time, but really it has been tenacity, writing, the gym and being future focused that has helped me through.  If I had stopped pursuing recovery, if I had allowed the options of others and even the sway of a therapist to determine my course, I would never be this far down the path to wholeness. If you spend anytime reading or talking to others about their story you will find that there are as many similarities as there are  people recovering.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/ptsd-recovery/paths-to-recovery/

[t-p-smythe-blog]

State Dept: Trafficking Of Men And Boys Hidden and Unreported

Trafficking in Persons Report June 2017   Around the world, the sex trafficking of boys and men continues to be hidden and underreported, and there is a severe shortage of programs to meet their needs.  For example, reports have documented boys sold into sex trafficking in Afghanistan, including for bacha baazi, where men use young boys for social and sexual entertainment. In the United States, men and boys are exploited for commercial sex.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/the-voice/trafficking-of-men-and-boys-hidden-and-unreported/

[liamkelly86-blog]

2nd Largest Crime Enterprise In the World

HUMAN TRAFFICKING is a  $32 BILLION per year industry.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/the-voice/2nd-largest-crime-enterprise-world/