Ritual Abuse Survivors support **********Trigger Warning******* Proceed with caution as posts could be triggering. Take care of you!

This forum thread is for Survivors of Ritual abuse to find a safe space to share with one another and seek support. Please avoid being too graphic to avoid triggering one another, being respecting and supportive of one another.

Please be aware that the following information contains descriptions that you may find distressing. It is important to ensure you are in a place that feels safe to you before reading any further and we would ask that you do so in order to prevent being triggered in so far as you are able and to access support should you need it.

What is Ritual Abuse?

Ritual abuse is a term used to describe the psychological, physical, or sexual abuse of a person or group of people as part of a religious, cult, or secular ritual.

Ritual Abuse is abuse that occurs in the context linked to some symbols or group activity that have religious, magical or supernatural connotation and where the invocation of these symbols or activities, repeated over time, is used to frighten and intimate children. All of this is conducted for the purpose of control so that the abusers can systematically abuse and control children and adults.

Ritual abuse is an extreme form of sadistic abuse of children and adults. It is deliberate, methodical, systematic involving sexual, physical, emotional and spiritual abuse using mind control and torture. A groups ideology is used to justify any actions or abuse carried out, and the ideology is often reinforced and taught to children/non-consenting adults, using abuse to reinforce this. The activities are kept secret from society at large, as they violate norms and laws.

Any ideology can be used in ritualistic abuse, but most often is found forms of Satanism, Santeria, Kabbalan, Voodoo, Christianity, pagan and pantheistic belief systems etc.

Ritual abuse is perpetrated by men and women of all ages, from all walks of life and geographical areas.

Perpetrators have mainly been classified as:

Family or Transgenerational: Adults, who were abused as children, in turn abuse and indoctrinate their own children. The tradition can go back for generations.

Extra-familiar: Adults abuse non-related children. Children can be accessed at day care, schools, church, or through social groups.

Ad hoc groups: Adults, who may have had an abusive history, or may have a history of no abuse but who come together and form a new group with its own ideology and rituals. Teenagers are thought to comprise many such ad hoc groups.

A calander of dates of often observed by ritualistic groups which can vary depending on the particular ideology/belief system they follow and these dates are often extremely traumatic for Survivors of Ritual Abuse.

Ritual Abuse is a topic society has either not come across, not believed, or not wished to know about. Whilst more awareness is growing about Ritual Abuse, Survivors often find it very difficult to not only be believed but to find the support they need to recover and heal from their experiences. Abusive groups go to great lengths to discredit their victims, to remain undetected, and to hide their activities well. Ritual Abuse Survivors often have been terrorised to such a degree that they either never leave, or if they do continually live in fear, unable to speak of their experiences, or find difficulty in finding appropriate support for themselves and they have often been terrorised to maintain the silence. In addition, Society as a whole finds it very difficult to accept and believe that its norms and laws have been so blatantly and extremely violated, so society turns its back in denial.

This space has been created for all Ritual Abuse Survivors to seek support in a safe, supportive environment, free from judgement. We do ask where possible you avoid being graphic to avoid triggering others and yourselves and to respect one another.

Whether you believe you matter or not, You do, we are here for you. Trust yourself, reach out when it feels safe to do so. Every day you find the courage to remain away from your past, to fight all that was done to you, and move towards a future you wish for yourself, is an achievement and something to be celebrated. Your strength, your courageousness to keep fighting, to remain safe, and free, added to others, is the only hope we have of exposing the horrors that Survivors of Ritual Abuse have endured to the be able to begin the process of repairing that damage.