Welcome back to the peripheral. I need to start by giving a few shoutouts and thank yous.

First and foremost, Misty, thank you for being there. You are an awesome supporter of the show.

Erica, Lisa, Amy, all my moderators, you guys are awesome.

Brooke and Allison, thank you so much for all your help.

I got a couple nice messages the other day from Doreen and Max.

So thank you guys.

I've had a series of guests come on and talk about sexual abuse, rape, statutory rape, and trying not to put

out three or four episodes in a row like that. I don't want to overwhelm or fatigue people

with such a heavy topic, so I'm going to try to break them up.

But today's topic is about child molestation and how it can affect the rest of your life

and the ripple effects it has on everyone you know, your family, your children in your life.

My name's Melissa and I'm from Sydney in Australia.

Well, I'm about an hour out of Sydney.

I'm a single mum.

I have a seven-month-old daughter, who is just amazing.

So I just live with her, my dog, my cat.

I sort of, I guess I've gotten to this point in my life now.

A lot of the things that happen when I was a kid has led me to where I am now.

Basically, there was a few different incidences when I was a kid where I was sexually

abused by partners of my mother, which first started when I was five years old.

And then happened a few times with that partner.

Then happened with another partner of hers.

...