Helping Victims Become Survivors 2
September 4th, 2008 by ComputerBob
One month ago, I began doing several hours of behind-the-scenes volunteer work each week for an organization that helps several groups of people, including victims and survivors of domestic violence.
But as a survivor, I wanted to do more than behind-the-scenes work. So, last week, I completed state-mandated training and passed a state certification exam that qualifies me to work directly with victims and survivors.
The training’s combination of presentations, videotapes, discussions and role-playing was often extremely intense, and brought back many traumatic memories of my own abusive biological family, like those that I documented in this site’s Domestic Violence Info section.
Looking back, I now realize that the stress of being part of that family was one of the main reasons that I was overweight for many years. Likewise, getting out of that family was an incredibly empowering action that helped give me the strength to lose more than 100 pounds.
How do I know that?
Because, after successfully maintaining my weight loss of more than 100 pounds for the past 9 months, I suddenly gained 10 pounds during last week’s training.
Don’t worry — I’ve already re-lost 3 of those pounds.
But now I know that I’m going to have to be extra careful from now on.
Like today, when I start on-the-job training to be a volunteer legal advocate.
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Tags:
Domestic Violence, Health, Inspirational, Personal, Psychology, Survivors