My advice for Jayme Closs (from a child abduction survivor who has walked in her shoes)
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In these early days, Jayme needs time and space, and her privacy must be respected.
Additionally, traumatic experiences can result in hypersensitivity. Emotions may run from one end of the spectrum to the other in mere seconds. Even the most gentle of touches, welcomed one moment, may be unbearable the next. Jayme’s family may learn that she will need to set new boundaries, and that while this can be highly confusing to all, they are hers to set.
Public curiosity often becomes both invasive and painful. There are aspects of Jayme’s captivity that she may never wish to share. We may never know, nor do we need to know, the horrors that this child may have experienced. Everyone must be cognizant of the fact that Jayme’s existence goes beyond the headlines, and she must be allowed to continue her healing without interference.
This world that she has been thrown into, one that she did not ask for, will be difficult to navigate. I’ve traveled these waters and know how invasion of privacy and misguided public perception can impede the recovery process. People often speculate about how they would react if faced with a dire situation. Never judge survivors for what they did, or did not do, in order to survive. Whatever choices they may have made were the right ones because they kept them alive – and that is heroic.
In the end, this is Jayme’s story and hers alone.