Liliana

Every trigger warning possible, like any trigger warning you can think of, it's going to be mentioned in this story.

So if you're not in a good headspace, I don't recommend listening to this story or maybe just skipping towards, you know, the end where I talk more about pursuing legal justice and stuff like that.

So intrafamilial child torture.

I know you've had other guests on here to talk about it, but in case anyone doesn't know what it is, intrafamilial child torture or ICT is a mix of coercive control and severe violence against a child.

So the difference between ICT and abuse is kind of like ICT changes the way that the brain develops, if that makes sense.

So, for example,

If a mother continuously body shames her child, but the child is secure enough in themselves to not really let that bother them, that is abuse.

But if that same scenario happens and the child grows up with eating disorders and body dysmorphia and stuff like that, that would be ICT because it changed the way that their brain works.

It changed, you know, how they developed, how they view the world and themselves.

So that is the difference between the two.

Another reason why I wanted to share my story is because I really want to iterate to people that, especially within sexual abuse, something I see a lot is people asking, you know, where is the mother?

Especially if it's a male harming a child, everybody loves to ask, where's the mother?

Where's the mother?

But it's been my experience and I've met several other CSA survivors in my life.

I've read so many books, watched so many videos, heard so many other testimonies.

And something I'm finding pretty common is the mothers know.

We can't leave it up to the mothers.

And that's why I want to share the signs because leaving it up to the mothers most of the time is not going to do anything.

According to Psychology Today, 52% of mothers do not support their children after they come out about sexual abuse.

And I think that's crazy.