Leena decided to share her personal story for several reasons. One is to reduce the stigma associated with talking about addiction and being a survivor of sexual abuse. She also decided to do it to hopefully affect some change.
The fact that people have to wait a significant amount of time up to a year to get the assistance they need. According to her, it is not acceptable. Lena is hoping by sharing her story that others will join her in advocating for improving services. Particularly for women, who are struggling with addictions and people who have survived sexual abuse.
Her abuse took place over 20 years ago. At that time she was a teenager and her partner was a binge drinker. She became a victim of sexual abuse. Resultantly, she has battled depression and alcoholism too for a long period.
Attempting Suicide
Due to these circumstances, she was going for suicide but one of her friends saved from doing so. After extensive counselling and stabilization, she was fortunate enough to become healthy and return to life.
It is a very difficult decision for everyone who decides to share stories. Lena thinks from her perspective, you can help society by sharing your story. So the reaction she has gotten was overwhelmingly positive. She has heard from people from every point in her life from every aspect of her life.
Facts about sexual assault and alcoholism
The prevalence of sexual abuse is difficult to calculate due to underreporting. However, studies suggest alcohol plays a significant role in sexual abuse.
According to the Centres for Disease Control, 1 in 6 boys and 1 in 4 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18.
16-19-year-olds were 3.5 times more likely to be a victim of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault. 35.8 percent of sexual assaults occur between the ages of 12 and 17.
Around 1 in 5 female high school students report being physically and/ or sexually abused by a dating partner.
50 percent of assaults include alcohol involvement. Alcohol consumption can be by the perpetrator, the victim or both. So it is very important to be safe out there.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned data clearly shows that sexual abuse and alcoholism have a close relationship. It is an open and shut case. One can imagine its consequences like attempting suicide, as we read in the story of Leena. However, there are still barriers to talk about this issue in public.
Therefore, it is important to discuss the issue and save people from it. It is also essential to bring down the wait time for people who need treatment. It must also be ensured that appropriate treatments are available to the various populations.
For instance, people who have experience both or who deal with both addictions and have experienced sexual abuse need to be treated by people who are trained in both those areas. That's very hard to come by, so we need to improve these services.
Following readings are also recommended and it would help in coping with addiction:-
In the end, let’s see this amazing video to save us from Alcohol use disorder.
