denial
-
We leave our abusers kicking and screaming. Why is that? Shouldn’t we want to run away as fast as we can? We glorify them in our minds and say the sexual abuse was sustainable – it really wasn’t that bad. If it was family, we take it a step further and go underground so we…
-
I entered adult life lame. I was weak and fell behind the others around me. I married my first husband at 18 to get away from my parents. He, of course, was a classic abuser and royal asshole. My attempts to keep myself and my children safe around him, never seemed to work. I was…
-
My story could have played out differently. It could have been immediately filled with grace for him. At once, forgiveness could have sat with us at a holiday table. Instead, he lied. I became despised and abhorred by his family. They are no longer my family. As a survivor of his crimes, I struggled to…
-
Living through all the evil in my childhood should have set me up with a clear vision to see evil as an adult, spot the deceiving way of an abuser and recognize their lies. Right? Wrong! My mind had been poisoned so severely that my vision was skewed and I could not predict a true…
-
Struggling to believe our memories seems to be a strong theme among survivors. The chaotic repercussion of not believing your mind is a serious thing. That event alone locks us into confusion. We’re fine to blame ourselves for our sexual promiscuity, for all the abusive relationships we’ve allowed and for all the maltreatment we’ve accosted…
-
The three D’s of survival. When I watched my father kill tiny kittens on a rough block of wood, I reached into my tool bag and sorted through my survival skills. Which of the three D’s would I use? Any of them could work. When I watched the blood seeping out of one of the…
-
Red sky at night, sailors’ delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. Just as the sky dictates the weather, so it is with life. It’s been easy to follow my memories as they return to me because my life story was evident all around me. Anger was my father’s finest friend; betrayal of all that…
-
If we were to face the facts of childhood rape and molestation, it is perversion in the purest form. Predators of all kinds like the power they take when they possess another human being’s body to mutilate it for their own perverse pleasures. This should not be watered down. It is the epitome of the…
-
All the years I’ve spent in a counselor’s office trying to sift through the rubble of my childhood and heal, I never encountered the priceless, cherished moments that populate the early years of most. They just weren’t a commodity I was raised with. I’m not being a victim by sharing this, it’s just factual. As…
-
My story could have played out differently. It could have been immediately filled with grace for him. At once, forgiveness could have sat with us at a holiday table. Instead, he lied. I became despised and abhorred by his family. They are no longer my family. As a survivor of his crimes, I struggled to…