I kept looking for attribution for your information. You said,
Colleen Stan is a strong, admirable, and amazing woman who went through an unimaginable experience, but came out of it stronger, and determined to use her nightmare as a tool to help other girls live through theirs, and come out on top, too.
Do you know her? Otherwise, what are your sources?
I have to apologize for the conclusion. I think it may have gotten inadvertently cut short. She has stated in multiple interviews for various magazines that she was working as a women's advocate, but more interestingly, she had spoken with 48 Hours producer, Paul LaRosa in September 2009 in order to give Jaycee Lee Dugard, and her family a message after her safe return from captivity. Colleen reached out to the Dugard family in an effort to offer the family support through Jaycee's recovery, being concerned about Jaycee's state of mind. Apparently, she'd met Jaycee's mother on a talk show a few years before, and had tried to contact her after Jaycee was rescued.
" 'I read that she felt guilty but she should not feel that way,' Collen said. 'You can't be with someone 18 years and not have an attachment. I hope I get the opportunity to talk to her and tell her she did nothing wrong. She did everything right. She's alive.
'I want to work with these women (Jaycee, her mother and her daughters) and help them readjust,' Colleen said. 'It is not easy. After being away from the world for 7 1/2 years and all of a sudden you're thrown back in the world and it's hard, very overwhelming. My heart just goes out to these women who come out of these situations. It's hard to adjust to your family situation.'" (LaRosa, P, 2009).
At this point in her life, Colleen was working as an office manager in Northern CA, however, more recent articles, such as one featured on crimefeed.com by Catherine Townsend, indicate that she is now working as a victim advocate. She has been able to put her ordeal behind her, and use what she has learned from her own experience and recovery to reach out to others. In 1984, when she finally escaped her captor, victim's advocacy groups were not yet available, and her own advocate was actually a tax attorney assigned to her by the state.
I don't want to get off topic, and I apologize for my long reply. I did, however, want to clarify that there were sources behind the statement, and that Colleen has reached out to other victims and their families to offer support, assistance, and guidance on the road to their own recovery by relating to the plethora of confusing emotions that only another victim can understand, and identify with. Not every victim is able to use their experience to help others without rehashing their own experiences in the process. The fact that she is able to face her own demons head on in order to aid other victims, to me, is an outstanding and admirable quality. As a victim of some pretty awful experiences myself, I have a difficult time speaking about my experiences, or my recovery to people, especially strangers. Actually, I usually do not even reference them in posts, like I am now. It's not easy for me, even keeping it this vague, to talk about any of the traumas I've suffered. I still feel anxious and uncomfortable even divulging what I have in this reply, so I do have a lot of respect for those who can speak openly & honestly about their personal experiences, and especially when they can do so in an effort to help other victims. I could help others easily, but, I may not be able to share my own stories to do so. I hope that makes sense.
References include:
LaRosa, P. (2009, September 2). Exclusive: Woman imprisoned in coffin has special message for Jaycee Dugard. CBS news posted for 48 Hour Crimesider at url: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/exclusive-woman-imprisoned-in-coffin-for-7-years-has-special-message-for-jaycee-dugard/
Townsend, C. (2016, September 9). Raped, tortured, and locked in a coffin for seven years: The true story of Colleen Stan. ID Crime Feed. url: http://crimefeed.com/2016/09/bound-in-a-box-the-true-story-of-colleen-stan/
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Thanks. I'm sorry about your traumas. I don't think you have to share about anything you don't feel comfortable sharing, especially on a blockchain. For me, talking about my trauma helped me begin recovering. You may want to follow @lauralemons if you haven't already. She writes frankly about trauma.
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Thanks! I appreciate that. For some reason, I just felt really compelled to make mention of them in my reply, and since I was feeling okay with it, to a point anyway, I decided to let it out. I know talking will help, I think I've just held back so much for so long that it becomes almost second nature to remain silent. I have actually been considering beginning to write about them online, where I can still at least hide behind a username while beginning to help myself to gain confidence about speaking out. Thank you, I will check out her posts! I appreciate it
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I have to admit that the idea of the blockchain makes me a little hesitant about writing details of certain things. On the other hand, in the early nineties I sent a letter to the editor of my city's newspaper identifying myself as a childhood sex abuse survivor to protest a proposed Oregon referendum that would have treated gay people as if they were equivalent to pedophiles. Writing that letter was empowering for me, and I was delighted when the referendum failed.
(To add another chapter to that story, when I lived in Nicaragua, I met a Nicaraguan-American who had lived in Oregon a long time and whose wife tried to help pass that bill with his money. He became a friend and translated for us the night my husband was injured in a robbery. It's an odd world.)
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