In this episode, Lori Poland is once again joined by fellow survivor, Jon Vaughn.  To change things up, Jon interviews Lori about her experiences as a survivor.

The Louder than Silence podcast is brought to you by the National Foundation to End Child Abuse and Neglect (EndCAN): www.endcan.org

Episode Takeaways:

• What made Lori write her book?  “When we are survivors, there is a developmental process, and my sentences became paragraphs, and then a book.  It is one of the faces of survivorship – we start as a victim, then move out of that phase and transition into survivorship and then into being a thriver and then when you’re through finding ‘your own’, you transition to transcender.”
• The title is, “I Live Here” which details her life story, starting with her kidnapping at the age of 3. When she was found by rescuers at the bottom of an outhouse toilet, she told them, "I live here."
• Children do not know what normal is, so what they are experiencing may seem normal to them without realizing it is abuse.
• The narrative of her story was only what she had been told by family, and it was their story, not her's.  Every time she was interviewed publicly, they accused her making parts of the story up and the more this happened, the more she did research and saw details that she was not aware of.  Their narrative and her experience were not the same.
• The history of books is “his” story in everyone’s own perspective.  And, you have to own your perspective and truth and defend it.
• It’s okay to not have a family in the way most people envision.  You’re going to have family that will never leave because they are touched by your story.
• Always take time for yourself; wounds don’t heal in a day.
• We have to be able to say no, to society, to parents, to abusers, to anyone trying to hurt you.

Quotes of the Show:

• "Transcenders are people who turn around and give it back. "
• "Don’t be concerned about people talking, be concerned when they aren’t."

Links:
Lori's book, "I Live Here" - https://endcan.org/2022/07/11/lori-poland-memoir/