Breaking her silence
Suffering at hands of her stepfather, she ‘felt ashamed, dirty – as if it was my fault’. SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM TELLS OF TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE
Asexual abuse victim yesterday opened up about being sexually assaulted by her stepfather at the age of 12, leading to her suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.
Melissa Vaughn’s revelation comes against a background of the World Health Organisation 2022 report estimating that on average 13% of the world’s population lived with a mental disorder, with Africa’s prevalence standing at 11 %.
Vaughn was among several delegates attending the two-day SA mental health conference in Gauteng this week.
Relating her traumatic experience, Vaughn, an occupational therapist – now engaged and looking forward to bring up her own children – said she was “not ashamed to publicly tell my story”.
“I will fight every day and improve my mental health – in the process improving myself and the life of others,” she said.
“Breaking the silence means breaking the stigma. If sharing a story helps to empower someone – letting others know that there is a reason and a purpose to wake up every morning and carry on, then I know that I did not suffer and struggle for no reason.”
Sexually abused by her stepfather while at primary school, Vaughn said she “felt ashamed, dirty – as if it was my fault”.
She could not immediately share her experience because she shared a home in George, Western Cape, with her mother, brother and stepfather. This after her mother got divorced.
“My 12-year-old mind told me if I spoke, who would believe me,” she said.
“My silence did not help because I was sexually molested repeatedly until I fell into a state of depression and tried to hide from the world.”
When Vaughn eventually broke her silence, her mother protected the perpetrator, with the bouts of sexual assault being described as “a mistake”.
“My mother took his side and I was left to fend for myself.”
Vaughn’s only saviour was her biological father.
“My father saw my scars. When I told him what happened, he believed me immediately – sched
uling a doctor’s and psychologist appointments,” she recalled.
In his keynote address at the gathering, attended by experts, Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla said the burden of mental illness was “felt, not only through the primary presentation of mental disorders, but also through its high comorbidity with other illnesses”.
“While the occurrence of mental disorders results from a complex interaction between biological, psychological and social determinants, the inequitable and adverse socioeconomic environment in South Africa, provides fertile ground for predisposition, causation; and exacerbation of mental illnesses,” said Phaahla.
“Where there are inadequate services to deal with this, the situation
deteriorates from bad to worse.”
Researchers, said Phaahla, listed the barriers to progress in mental health service development as “the prevailing public-health priority agenda and its effect on funding – the complexity of and resistance to decentralisation of mental health services”.
“Researchers also state that many of the barriers to progress in the improvement of mental health services can be overcome by political will,” said Phaahla.
Referring to the Life Esidimeni scandal, which rocked the Gauteng government, Phaahla said: “It is this focus on the human rights that provided recourse for the families of the Life Esidimeni tragedy.”