Cyber abuse and domestic violence are strikingly similar. One beats you up physically and emotionally and the other beats you up emotionally. Both attack your reputation and credibility when exposed. They will go to any length to discredit you. Continuous bruises, cuts, black eyes, swollen split lips etc. are generally pretty good signs of domestic violence but there are ways the abuser and abused can hide them. Other indications of physical and emotional abuse is the demeanor of the victim. If you've worked with abuse victims or you're a survivor you know what it looks and feels like. Cyber harassment in many ways can be more devastating because it's virtually impossible to identify the followers of a public site who side with the abusers - especially if pictures of you (old or new) end up all over their blogs or web sites along with hateful diatribes. When it's over the internet there are no visual signs except the gradual decline in self care, such as weight gain, etc caused by depression. You have no help. Oregon currently doesn't have enforceable laws against Cyber harassment. You can't get a restraining order and in some cases (should it reach your workplace as was in my case), you might get the one employer in the entire history of abuse that'll turn away and place blame on the abused. Who knows?!!! What I do know is that bulling and intimidating behavior through the internet and/or through the workplace is wrong.
"I know everything about you!!! I follow 'Rantings".
via a passenger on my bus.
When one of their followers decides to surface and let you know - everything in your world changes.
This blog is about education and support through my experience. I created it to assist me in finding my voice and that of my sisters and brothers from around the World who share similar experiences.
“People speak sometimes about the “bestial” cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.
—
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
