David Voller

Not my real name. This is twitter account for me discuss the abuse I experienced as child, its consequences. Also, I'm very political. Dyslexic and dyspraxic.

[Diane Langberg, PhD @DianeLangberg]

Childhood abuse results in a life lived in reaction to, in protection against, or in defiance of a horror you would like to forget. The fact that you are a survivor is worthy of commendation. You have done what seemed impossible. You have survived what seemed unbearable.

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

Here we go again, I'm in trauma therapy again. Been down this path so many times since 98. Nearly 3 decades. Only in the last ten years i discovered i had complex PTSD.
Things that got in the way:how cultural the literature is dominated by female focused therapy. And poverty!

[Parody Nigel Farage @Parody_PM]

Strange that Kemi Badenoch finds her voice on grooming gangs now, after being an MP for 8 years, including time as Minister For Children & Families then Minister for Women and Equalities.
#PMQs

[Kate McCann @KateEMcCann]

Labour MP Natalie Fleet - who was groomed and raped as a teenager - says Kemi Badenoch is “using the [grooming gang] victims like a political football” - adding: “How is she any better than the men that have used us?” #wato

[Dr. Glenn Patrick Doyle @DrDoyleSays]

Something happens in our nervous system when we show up for ourselves, again & again & again, even when it's hard, even when Trauma Brain is telling us we don't "deserve" to have our own back. Something shifts.

It's what healing, recovery literally, physically feels like.

[mary beard @wmarybeard]

I confess I’m not v keen on the idea that Classics & other humanities disciplines teach you how to THINK (they may or may not). They do however teach you how to READ & argue responsibly on questions to which there are no right answers. I believe these are v important civic skills

[Jessica Simor KC @JMPSimor]

The BBC says: “Protesters target mosque”. Can you imagine saying “Protesters target synagogue? These are criminals. By platforming Farage, Oakeshott, Tice, Goodwin etc, the BBC normalised the far right. Now it legitimises them as so called “protesters” https://t.co/yofMbolcM5

[Marina Purkiss @MarinaPurkiss]

Our country needs to hear this right now…

This is Jonathan Miller taking on Enoch Powell

Calling out the baselessness of racial fear and hatred

…and we need our leaders to follow suit.

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

No.

[Tobias Ellwood @Tobias_Ellwood]

TIME TO REMOVE SOCIAL MEDIA ANONYMITY

We cannot allow the use of social media to so effectively promote disinformation & rally violence that’s now ripping communities apart across the country.

Tough challenges require brave solutions:
Anyone using social media should be charged a modest fee(£1)- therefore directly accountable for the messages they publish.

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

Male violence affects men & boys, kind regards male survivor.
I accept females are more likely to be victims but this discourse that focuses on female victims alienates& causes issues with male recovery. We need to focus on male violence & recognise different gender experiences.

[David Challen @David_Challen]

Will be glued to the #KingsSpeech today in the hopes we will finally see a govt finally putting tackling domestic abuse and male violence against women and girls at the heart of their priorities. The accepted scale of violence cannot continue.
➡️https://t.co/ma65hCw1TW

[Mind @MindCharity]

In the #KingsSpeech, the UK government just committed to reforming the Mental Health Act.

We’re over the moon 🎉

This has taken years of campaigning from across the mental health sector and will make a huge difference to people's lives. 1/2

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

Hard night, haunted by series of dreams that reflect a stressful reality. Recently,a close family member diagnosed with a terrible & life destroying disease. I fear for close love ones who will come know about this existential void, vacuum: a bleakness that can eat you up

[Robert Peston @Peston]

As a Jew, I have become increasingly worried that the charge of antisemitism is being levelled to silence legitimate and important debate. Antisemitism is on the rise, but there is also a rise in the unscrupulous use of the term to silence reasonable questions about the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza. This article in the Harvard Crimson by Jewish community leader Bernie Steinberg warns of incipient McCarthyism. It is worth reading, whichever side of the debate you are on https://t.co/72dRiMDvSw

[Andrew Campbell @amcampbell84]

2023 was a bit of a difficult year at times, looking forward and ahead to good things in 2024. It’s important to remember though, that even difficult years can serve great purpose in one’s life. Take the days as they come. Press on. Change IS coming.

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

Yes,Peter Gabriel, fish, marillion, Janet Jackson, Tori Amos, pink Floyd list goes on and on. .

[Dr. Jessica Taylor @DrJessTaylor]

Music, writing, and reading saved my life many times during and after trauma.

Therapy is great (if you want it, you can get it, and therapist isn’t shite) - and that’s a lot of ‘ifs’. I accessed it on and off for years when I needed it, but I realised very quickly that there were many other ways to process my trauma feelings and thoughts without having to explain it to someone else.

Music has been central. I have spent years creating playlists that help me express how I am truly feeling. It could be the melody, or the lyrics, or the feeling, or the mood, or the instruments. I group the sounds and songs together into moods and emotions, and they help me to understand what it happening for me at that time. They also give me respite from the world - so I can lie somewhere comfy and just listen to another human sing their perspectives, pains, pleasures, and pressures.

Music is readily available to most people. I use it to dance when I need to, sing when I need to, and to simply lie still and process something.

This is an example of a trauma processing technique that doesn’t require any disclosures - but I have been able to relate to the traumas and distress of thousands of artists from around the world in every genre I can think of, and it has given me insight, confidence, comfort, perspective and focus. It doesn’t matter if I am lying there with tears streaming down my face, feeling angry at someone, or whether I am relaxing into a snooze whilst I think something through - music is a constant.

Reading books has been absolutely wonderful for me too. When I have sank into depths of trauma, I have picked up books many times. The escapism into a fiction, or the way I can become absorbed by a non-fiction, educational book - either suits me. I am just guided by what takes me at the time. Reading helps me to regulate, rethink, take on new lives and thoughts and feelings. It gives me a break from my own life and distress. Sometimes I have read books about trauma and distress at those times, but at others, I have read stories of worlds that exist in the minds of authors - everything from George Orwell to Malorie Blackman to Dhonielle Clayton.

Again, this presents another example of ways to process and rethink traumas and distressing experiences without disclosure to others. Not because I am averse to that, but because I can process my stuff without it often.

Writing is my third release. Poetry. Articles. Ideas. Books. Advice. Research. Papers. Thesis. Chapters. Reports. Blogs. Diaries. Journals. Notes. Letters. Observations. Anything really. Sometimes related to the trauma itself and lots of times, totally unrelated.

In terms of trauma-related writing, I once bought a notebook and I wrote a short account of one traumatic thing that had happened to me on every single page until I couldn’t think of anymore. Each page then, became dedicated to one incident or experience. I could barely believe how quickly I filled that book. The release was so important for me. I was about 20 when I did that.

I also wrote stories and poems about my life and the sexual traumas, to help me understand them and process them all.

Most recently, I was asked to write a memoir about my life called ‘Underclass’, and that comes out on the 18th April 2024 everywhere. Now that’s scary! Haha.

Writing is part of making it all real for me, I suspect. I think this is very important for those who have been told they are lying or exaggerating about their traumas. Seeing it all written out reminds you of how real and enormous it was.

I have written this out to explain that your coping mechanisms and trauma processing techniques do not need to include a therapist or mental health professional if you do not wish to access traditional 1:1 therapy. For some people, that will not work, and instead will destabilise them and make them feel much worse.

We’ve been convinced that the only ‘help’ out there is doctors and therapists, because it’s an industry.

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

@DrProudman I agree with sentiments; but We haldly talk about men being raped.

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

Terrible year, on my 4th job. lost because of my mental health, learning disabilities&because of childcare.
I was told by my union rep,I had no proof or conviction on PTSD. Told, my equipment for disability didn't do my job for me&had people silence me on issues with my bully

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

@Hollyarcher_cse Most of the time just blocking

[David Voller @DavidVoller80]

My silence here is just me going through therapy and creating normality with my mental health. I come here to delete friend requests and block them bots, mostly perverted ones. Which implies they haven't even read my profile. But also, to look in on this community.

[Prof Alice Roberts💙 @theAliceRoberts]

Last summer, my son, then 9, swam in an English river and suffered 6 whole days of diarrhoea and vomiting. It was very worrying. His friend was almost hospitalised. And now we’re told the only way we can have more houses is by sacrificing any hope of cleaning up our waterways. It’s so depressing. Humanity can surely be better than this.