GIVING AWAY 5 COPIES OF THE NEW AND REVISED EDITION OF INVISIBLE GIRLS!!

Hi Gals! Please become a fan on our facebook page for "Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse" !! Here is what is posted there- Our second edition is printed and ready to go out to the book stores all over the country any minute now!! I just got my copy and it is BEAUTIFUL! Seal Press has generously agreed to give away 5 copies of our new edition !! Here is the catch, the first 5 gals aged 13-23 years old please list 5 ways you are healing/ have healed from sexual abuse!! These copies are donated to you through my publisher Seal Press, but look for more give aways through Girlthrive.Inc. !! xo dr. p

Invisible Girls has a Facebook Fan Page!

I am clueless with Facebook, my publisher set this up. She told me it is a great way to spread the word about "Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse" . Then I saw girls set up a "I (heart) Dr. Patti and Invisible Girls page! So please add the facebook link to your fan clubs. Just search -Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse. Within a week we have more than 400 fans and over 100 fans from Iceland! And all over the world!! Please become a fan and tell your friends!! love xoxox dr. patti

Let's Help Each Other!

I learn amazing things from girls every day! Girls heal and move onward with their lives after abuse. This is a great opportunity to share with each other your techniques - your skills - your ways to heal. If you want to communicate directly with each other, email me- I will exchange your email addresses- Don't post your email addresses on the blog directly- I want to protect you gals!!

What Would You Like To Talk About??

It is time for you wonderful gals to give me some ideas on subjects you would like to talk about. Please send ideas for what we should blog about next. I am excited to hear from you! xo dr. p

You Couldn't Stop Him

So many girls write to me and tell me that they feel 'stupid' or 'weak' that they did not stop their abusers. They look back and they think they could have stopped their brother, father, date.... but it is clear that there are reasons that girls do not stop their abusers- I begin "Invisible Girls: The Truth About Sexual Abuse " talking about just this. Here are some of the points I make in the book. :

Why didn't you stop him- you lived under his roof, you were living in a web of fear and confusion, you were young, you didn't have good options, or a strong support system- Why didn't you stop him- We live in a culture where boys will be boys- a culture that pushes the sexist belief that young girls are ready for sex when their bodies start to develop, where a male dominated government decides the laws about rape and incest, pornography, child and spousal abuse and abortion - You didn't stop him because you couldn't.

I want you girls to try to begin to forgive yourselves. It is clear to me, that you were trapped and abused and you did not see the way out. If you have found a way out now, applaud yourselves! If you are finding a way out- reach out to us- we understand. xoxo dr. patti

"But I Never Said NO" .....

I hear from so many girls that are carrying around so much guilt. They were sexually abused. When the man or guy was pulling down their underpants to have sex, they became frozen... they could not say no. They did not want to have sex, their bodies did not respond- sometimes they cry, sometimes they pull away, sometimes they try to get their bodies out from underneath the guy on top of them, sometimes they go numb,. they just layed there- frozen - they did not ask for sex - but they could not open their mouths to say "no". It is clear that that is still rape. That is still sex abuse. Here is a girl's experience sent on the blog as a response to the last blog about prostitution- I wanted to post it here so that she could get some support from all of you wonderful brilliant girls- I know that many of you have been there too and have come through it. Let's give this gal some support! I know how much it will help her. I am posting it here because it has so much in it. She feels so guilty, she feels bad about herself because now she is free with giving her body over to guys even though she does not want to, she is engaging in drug use to escape- Come on girls - help her out! Please respond to this post. I know how amazing this community is- I also know that whenever we reach out to a girl - then another girl gets help and another and another! Here is her post:

i too never really said no, but i guess it must have been clear when i was pushing him off and crying. I mean i though he was so much cooler and older. i was 14 and he was 19 and it just seemed like a great thing to do at the time. its funny because he was the nicest one out of all of them. maybe that's why i reject any guy who asks me out or likes me. i mean after i was pretty much a slut having one night stands, i just didn't think i deserved to have sex with anyone who liked me. i didn't even like it. i would just lay there and pretend to be somewhere else. Im 17 now and i know i mean drugs are really the only thing that helps me escape reality which is pretty much pathetic but i guess i am that. i just cant help but wonder what if i didn't go out that night you know? and i know you will say its not my fault...but i mean it is. i think. I'm just confused.and this doesn't make any sense ad the most inappropriate place to write this. so i am sorry. i just needed to write it all out .....so sorry again

Prostitution Is Sexual Abuse!

I have had to honor to work with some of the amazing girls in the G.E.M.S. program here in New York City. G.E.M.S. stands for girls educational mentoring services. It is a wonderful program that helps to get girls out "of the life" . For those of you that do not know, "in the life" means the life of prostitution. I have learned from these brave girls that they had no other options, they did not have loving supportive homes, parents who loved and cared for them. They were vulnerable. Think about it... sexual abuse involved being forced to have sex with someone you are not ready to have sex with, do not choose to have sex with, do not want to have sex with, basically it is rape. Think about the 15 year old girl sent into a hotel room and a 50 year old man comes in, and says "Give me a blow job now." She does it- she escapes into her own world somewhere very far away from this gross man, this blow job. One girl told me when she had to "do tricks" for "johns" she basically exported herself to Hawaii on a beautiful beach and swam with the dolphins. See, girls forced into prostitution also "check out" while they are being abused. Just like incest survivors. So next time you hear someone call a prostitute a "hoe" "hooker" "whore" try to correct them. Tell them, those girls are abused too. xo dr. patti