The effects of Rape
As a child, Betty-Rose grew up “very sad.” Coping with the sadness was a constant
battle. Anger was another challenge. She recalls that while growing up she was angry, sad, and
lonely. She says that she was not diagnosed as depressed during her childhood because she
never told anybody what had happened. She grew up with her parents and her brother in a very
loving home. She also had an aunt and uncle whom she was very attached to and refers to them
as “second parents.” Even with a loving and supportive family environment, Betty-Rose felt
very lonely. She wanted to get away from home and her family because they did not know and
did not understand what she was going through. Betty-Rose admits that she also daydreamed a
lot. When she would daydream, she would daydream about leaving the country altogether and
becoming a citizen elsewhere. She loved the French language and imagined moving to France
and starting a life there to just be far away from everybody. She just wanted to start over and
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leave her past behind. She felt that if she were to go away that she could start out fresh and
nobody would know that she was that quiet, lonely girl and she could just have a clean slate. She
thought that it would be easier to leave rather than trying to rebuild from where she was.
Betty-Rose thought that escaping was easier to do than dealing with her situation and that
leaving would allow her more room to finally breathe.
