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is it my fault?

User Profile: secretPond5759
secretPond5759 October 9th, 2015

I have been holding onto to this secret for too long and it haunts me sometimes when I wake up. When I was around 10 years old, I began to be sexual ly assualted by my cousin who was 12. I slept over by his house once and then he got on my back and told me to push back. I said no and I told him to stop but he pinned me down and pushed into me, I felt dirty and sinful because I grew up Catholic in which homosexuality is seen as one of the worst sins you can commit.. That was the first occurrence, over 5-6 years when I went to his house to sleep over the same thing happened, except sometimes I was looking forward to it, this was due mostly to the fact that girls never seemed to like me in school and I was being bullied. It stopped when I reached high school but sometimes when im.alone and im.thinking, it pops into my head and I start feeling awful. I can never bring myself to tell anyone because I feel they will be disappointed. I want to stop thinking about it...any advice?

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User Profile: sylviaplathora88
sylviaplathora88 October 9th, 2015

No, it's definitely not your fault. Sexual assault can leave you feeling a number of ways... Dirty, implicit, powerless, foolish... What your cousin did was very wrong. But I'm guessing he was depending on your shame at participating to keep you quiet about the abuse. I think you need to talk to someone (a therapist) about the unresolved feelings you have. And I would also consider confronting this cousin. There is a chance he has tried that with other children in the family/or associates. Which means there could be more people suffering, but not coming forward out of fear of being judged. Good luck. And I'm sorry you had to endure that.