Two Dates and a Dash

• Feb 2nd 2021

Two Dates and a Dash Podcast Episode 95: Child Abuse Survivor and Podcast Host, Lucas Mack

If we met, you’d never know that I’m a survivor of pretty horrific childhood abuse and trauma. Because on the outside, I look like the average “nice guy” with everything anyone could ever want. The supportive and beautiful wife. The adorable and sweet children. The successful track record. The outgoing personality. The dream house. The big smile. Nothing about my life screams—he’s wounded! But beneath the surface of that perfect picture used to be a man who was severely depressed, anxious, and—at one point—suicidal. It wasn’t until 2016 that I understood why. It took one little moment—a conversation with my abuser, in fact—to trigger a sudden and endless stream of flashbacks into my childhood. Like small scenes from a movie, I was reliving moments I had locked away. Moments I had “deleted” from memory because they were that horrific. At first, I tried to cope by diving deeper into my business—working harder, working later, distracting in whatever way I could. But when it became too painful to bear and clear that I couldn’t manage it alone—through therapy or medication, I found another way. In fact, I did something pretty scary. I went to an emotional intelligence seminar where I revealed my deepest truth to a whole group of people. I spoke words out loud that I had only thought about saying. Words that carried great shame and great pain. I looked at the abuse, at my abusers, at everything that had been hidden for so many years. And as I spoke, yelled, cried, and let myself be seen, something miraculous happened. For the first time in my life, I felt like I could breath. As if I’d been living under water for decades and finally came to the surface pulling in a long overdue lung-full of air. Lightness. Something I’d never felt before. Arrived. And I recognized that in facing the pain, speaking out loud, releasing the emotion, and being held in non-judgment by my fellow attendees—I was FREE and more importantly HEALING. I had broken the cycle. This experience changed my life AND it ignited a spark—a knowing within me that it was time to use my voice in a bigger way, a more authentic way. To be courageous enough to tell my story. You see, what I’d experienced was profound and needed on a much larger scale, especially for men. Something that could save so many from the numb and limiting life I had been choosing for so long. Since stepping into what I know is my life’s work, I have the privilege of awakening audiences all over the world to the power of love and vulnerability as a means to HEAL from various forms of trauma and abuse. Today, my mission is to give men permission to face their trauma, heal emotional wounds, and experience love in its purest form so that they are free to live life with authenticity, power, and purpose. For more information on Lucas, please visit his website www.lucasmack.com.