Ask Dr. Helen: Should Men Be Kicked Out of the Church Nursery?
This is still very difficult for me to talk about 33 years later; it took me nearly 20 years to tell anyone about it at all. My mom still doesn’t know about it, and probably won’t unless she reads this.
When I was six years old, I was sexually abused by a 14 year old babysitter. Of course at that age it was impossible for me to perform sexually, and when she discovered that her efforts were futile the babysitter proceeded to tell me that I was a freak, and ugly anyhow, and that no woman would ever love me, and that if I told anyone what happened nobody would believe me.
The experience scarred me for life. I had one date in high school, and was absolutely terrified; I got completely fall-down drunk beforehand. I basically stayed drunk all the time from the age of 17 to 27. I didn’t have a girlfriend until the age of 26.
Things got a little better for me when I was 24 and told a roommate what had happened to me. Relationships with women are better now, but I still have a long way to go.
Now, if the experience had happened 8 years later, when I was 14 and the woman was 22, the result would have been much different.
