Inspiring Quotes that Describe Life After Trauma
Community Thread!
Please add your own quotes, lyrics or comments (:
Quotes about how things often really are, can help me feel validated, not as alone, and help me think.
If they help you too, please add the quotes that help you. Thank you.
"Stop: it can't be true, right? This type of real doesn't happen to you, right?"
- Atmosphere, "That Night"
"The leaves of memory seemed to make mournful rustling in the dark."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"I cannot be who I was then: in a way, I never was."
- Johnny Cash
"More and more, it feels like I'm doing a really bad impersonation of myself."
- Chuck Palahniuk, "Choke"
"All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why."
- James Thurber
"One need not be a chamber to be haunted; One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing Material place."
- Emily Dickinson, "Time and Eternity"
"One of these days, I'm going to lose control, sign up for every social media platform on the internet, and show everyone everything."
- Allie Brosh
"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."
- E.E. Cummings
"I am twenty and I am already exhausted."
- Elizabeth Wurtzel
"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Please add your own quotes, lyrics or comments (:
@JovialOne
"Jovial" is such a beautiful word. "One" also is, oneness is a good thing and reminds to ourselves that we are a whole. Of course whole in a much bigger plan also. One with ourselves, one with universe. AMAZING!
"If you aren
@wontsleepwontwake Some really great quotes wontsleep, thank you for sharing these with everyone :)
Abuse is a word, not a sentence
@DeborahUK
Doesn't it kinda feel like a sentence, though? Like we've been sentenced to Life with no parole, while they get to live theirs free and clear 
@BeeLeigh - Not to get too into this, but, for me, whenever I compare, I always find myself with the short-stick due to my depression; comparisons are really unhealthy for me. Plus, considering, if my abuser were not free or were finally held responsible for what happened, I would still be dissatisfied. I don't want them to exist anymore at all! I have too much anger for justice to bring me peace at this point. I like to think that my abuser is trapped: trapped in their own Awfulness, from which they can never escape. Our abusers are Horrible People. There is no way for them to escape that. They can lie. They can deny. They can feign ignorance. They can have 'friends,' they can have a 'loving family,' and a 'good life' - but those friends, fmaily, and that life is led under false pretenses. Their life is a Horrible Lie because they are Horrible People. My honesty and truth and struggle sets me free. Every minute we struggle to find a slice of peace, we succeed just because we are trying. My abuser wants me to fade away or pretend nothing happened, but I will never give them the satisfaction, and that makes me feel free. Even if our abusers affected our chances of inner peace (and oh boy have they!), we have the control now. I don't know. I certainly understand where you are coming from and my heart aches for where you are at with this, but I hope these thoughts give you something to consider in turn. <3 Much love, Bee
@wontsleepwontwake
Hmm, I'm not 100% clear I get where you're coming from. To me, the very best outcome for an abuser and a survivor:
The abuser suffers, whether through being brought to justice legally, or having a guilty conscience and suffering with that, or never finding happiness with another person because of their terrible actions. But in some way, they pay a price for their actions, and lift that sentence from the survivor.
So the survivor sheds the guilt and shame, because they see it doesn't belong to them. They live a good life, do things that make them happy, spend it with people that make them feel fulfilled, recognise their value and worth. Not to say you don't take lessons from your past, but let them be the positive ones, like how strong you are, how dignified, how compassionate.
Living a life dogged by pain and hurt, even if your abuser sees that and may feel some guilt for it, it's not really freeing you is it?
@DeborahUK - I don't think I am very clear on where you are coming from either, haha. I was trying to focus more on how the abusers are at least equally trapped in a way that helps me cope with the fact that they are 'free' compared to our 'life on parole' in the example given. The things I wrote in my post help me feel empowered to continue my own healing regardless of my abuser's situation and I just posted it in case it helped empower others as well. :)
@wontsleepwontwake
Aah, I think I see now. Yes, that is an empowering way of viewing it, in that the abuser doesn't find freedom, nor deserve it, and remains trapped in their own self inflicted hell.
I've always been very taken by the wisdom in your posts, so let's put it down to it being late here as to why I didn't get your meaning from the outset! You know what, whatever helps you to come out with more power than the abuser, that's a good result for me. Abuse is a word, not a sentence.
@DeborahUK
@wontsleepwontwake I like this view on the situation, thanks you for sharing this ..
@wontsleepwontwake ❤️
@BeeLeigh
That's at the heart of the quote really Bee. It shouldn't be a sentence. So often it becomes one, but it's a sentence that doesn't belong to you. How you let it go, how you place it at the feet of the person/people it belongs to, well that's what takes some figuring out. But one thing I know with certainty, it ain't your sentence. Sentences belong to those who did wrong, not to the people on the receiving end. You deserve freedom.
I'm working on it, @DeborahUK ❤️
@DeborahUK
Are you free Deb? Do you have your freedom yet?
@BeeLeigh
Pretty much Bee, yes. Just occasionally I pick that burden up again, but then I remind myself it
@DeborahUK
I would say that I
"Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, ‘Im not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times youve felt that way."
— Charles Bukowski
@Shizaa - Charles Bukowski, yes! Love this, and so very relatable and true. Thanks for sharing!
Loving these quotes guys. I am a quote fan, so heres a few for you
@dancingRainbow45 - I hope you don't mind, but I saw these in your feed and I really enjoyed them. :)
You can recognize survivors of abuse by their courage. When silence is so very inviting, they step forward and share their truth so others know they aren't alone.
- Jeanne McElvaney
@wontsleepwontwake Dont mind at all 
There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.
― Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
@wontsleepwontwake Oh this is so beautiful. I love this quote :) It made me go all warm and smile Listening to your own heart is so important
"Trauma permanently changes us. This is the big, scary truth about trauma: there is no such thing as 'getting over it.' The five stages of grief model marks universal stages in learning to accept loss, but the reality is in fact much bigger: a major life disruption leaves a new normal in its wake. There is no 'back to the old me.' You are different now; full stop.
This is not a wholly negative thing. Healing from trauma can also mean finding new strength and joy. The goal of healing is not a papering-over of changes in an effort to preserve or present things as normal. It is to acknowledge and wear your new life - warts, wisdom, and all - with courage." - Catherine Woodlwiss
@Emily619 - What a perfect quote! It's very honest and also very hopeful. Thank you so much for sharing.
@wontsleepwontwake
No problem; I'm glad you enjoyed it!
"'I have done it' says my memory. 'I cannot have done it' says my pride, refusing to budge. In the end - my memory yields."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
"All the doors you had yet seen...were doors in; here you came upon a door out. The strange thing to you...will be, the more doors you go out of, the farther you get in."
- George MacDonald
My past is an armor I cannot take off, no matter how many times you tell me the war is over. - Jessica Katoff
@wontsleepwontwake Oh this describes quite appropriately how trauma and its affects on us as individuals doesnt go away just because the trauma has ended but of how it has shaped us in our thoughts, behaviours and actions.
@wontwakewontsleep
One of my favorite quotes is from a poem called "The Old Astronomer" by Sarah Williams
Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in endless light
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.