Childhood Trauma & Abuse (TW!!)
As a child, I was sexually abused by someone my family trusted. The abuse lasted for years and still effects me to this day. I often have anxiety around men, fear coming back to my hometown from school and seeing my abuser, and have flash backs of the abuse. I know it wasn’t my fault, and I was too young to know any better. But it’s so hard to fully forgive myself and my abuser. (Yes, I want to forgive him. I don’t want to carry the burden.) I occasionally have episodes where I’ll just breakdown at the memories of trauma and abuse. It’s caused me to have emotional issues that still effect me to this day. Does anyone have any tips or resources on how I can move forward? I don’t want my childhood traumas to hinder who I am as an adult...
Hey there ❤️ This sounds like such a difficult and stressful situation, I'm sorry that you've been stuck in this trauma for so long. It's perfectly okay to struggle a lot with forgiving yourself and your abuser, I did too ❤️ The journey to recovery can be long and weary, so it can feel like we're going nowhere, especially when you've truly been trying your hardest to heal and move on.
There are many many resources and services out there that could help you move on. Different things work differently for people with different experiences, so we have to experiment with different techniques and try to see which ones work better.
For example, for short term symptoms, such as flashbacks, there are different ways to cope with them on the spot, such as grounding techniques. We have lots of discussions and posts here that explain these different techniques, so feel free to explore them. Here's one example for flashbacks, and one for triggers (click on the links to see them)
For long-term healing, many people find that journaling helps, so we have a space in this subcommunity for you to journal about your experiences and how you've been coping. We also have many listeners who are experienced and willing to take chats for trauma support, you can check them out at the link.
You can also try our self-help guides (these are just a few examples, feel free to explore the rest here):
Hope these help! Feel free to list out some areas you'd like more resources in and we'll see what we can find to help ❤️
Hi.. I really feel the pain as I'm also in that same state you are in. Reading your story, it's like I'm reading my own, cause it's acxatly the same. I feel you. And I also need help on moving forward.