WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Josh remembers yelling over and over for her to stop. But she didn't. He has to deal with people asking 'how a 6 foot 3 guy could be raped' or 'why I didn't like it'.
"Let's take the gender out of it. Trauma is trauma," he said.
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Josh spoke to CTV as part of its Challenge the Silence series. One in six boys will be sexually abused before they are 18. In this video series, 10 men have told their stories. All grew up believing they were the only ones it had happened to. Now they want other victims to know they are not alone and, if they are ready, help is there for them.
He said for a number of years he did not remember what had happened and "deliberately pushed it all down".
"And it hit me when I was actually at a festival with a whole bunch of people.
"I woke up and I was feeling really vulnerable."
He had not felt that way in a long time and when he asked himself: "When had I felt like this before?" it all came back.
"That was a confusing time for me and it took about three months to work out what even happened to me."
Josh said he was raped by someone he knew.
He doesn't remember much about the rape, except that he yelled "not like this" several times.
"I don't remember what happened after that.
"That moment's still hard for me to deal with obviously."
After remembering the rape, Josh suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The "constant" anxiety wore him down, and the PTSD also affected his relationships and confidence.
"You feel like you are the only one.
"You really do."
After trying to deal with what had happened himself he eventually sought help.
"If I wanted to get better I had no choice."
Getting that help and talking to other men who had suffered from sexual abuse had helped.
He believed the extent of the problem was not known because men did not talk.
"It's a hidden thing."
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Tone Miller, Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse Dunedin/Invercargill: 0211987878.
