The sexual abuse of children causes ongoing trauma and distress throughout their lives.
For boys it can cause sexual identity issues because the perpetrator is often male. Abused boys, as men, often self-medicate to block out the distress and pain of what happened to them, over which they had no control or power. Sexually abused boys are powerless because the power is always invested in the adult.
Abused boys can grow-up to be men with relationship issues and intimacy problems. Low self-esteem often pervades their adult lives. Trusting is very difficult because to get to the point where a man can tell of the abuse and its continuing impacts, he needs to begin to trust others.
The 17 Percent of Men is here to support men to let go of any shame and self-blame they may still harbour about the abuse. The blame and shame never belonged to us because it always belongs with the adult sexual perpetrator.
I know some of us have told our childhood stories to the Truth Project, which is now an integral strand of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
You can find details if you feel you want contact them at www.iicsa.org.uk/victims-and-survivors