And another thing

A comment left on that last post reminded me of another important reality. Healing from childhood abuse takes time, there’s no doubt about that, but the other thing is, it’s never too late to start! There’s plenty of times I look at my life, at the age of 35, and wish I hadn’t wasted so much of my 20’s trying to avoid dealing with the abuse issues. On the other hand, it’s better that I started late than not at all. No matter how many years have gone by, let the remaining ones be full of healing and happiness.

Similar Posts

  • How Shame Keeps Us Disconnected

    The context for this quote is a handful of stories where someone felt ashamed of an event or something that they’d allowed people to believe about them that wasn’t true. Marisa goes on to talk about how when we have something we won’t discuss, it creates a separation from other people, and that separation can take away from humanness. Our interactions with other people are blocked off. We know we aren’t sharing our whole selves with the people we should be. That block can protect us from potential pain, but it also prevents us from having all the benefits of having close relationships with other humans.

    Doesn’t that sound exactly like growing up keeping our abuse secret?

    We grow up with shame around something that was never our fault. That shame prevents us from fully connecting with other human beings. That lack of connection harms our mental health as adults. We struggle to heal without one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal as human beings, other people. We keep our secrets and hide our shame, meaning we will never know the healing power of being accepted and loved by those who know our whole selves.

  • Cancel Culture Exists Online, It’s Just Not What You’re Expecting

    It’s enough to make you just give it all up and walk away.

    That, to me, is cancel culture. I know there’s a lot of talk about cancel culture and whether it even exists or not, but frankly, to me, the real canceling that goes on online is when the good, thoughtful and caring, people just walk away instead of being here and having their voices matter. Because they’re tired. They’re tired of the constant outrage, the constant anger directed at them for not doing, and believing, everything random people expect them to. The vitriol directed at them in direct messages, comments, and tweets for simply trying to have a conversation, from all sides. For not supporting conspiracy groups, for not using the correct words, for not advocating for exactly the same things, in exactly then same way. Because if you don’t “agree” with them and show your support, in clear, and often financial, ways, you are the enemy.

    Seriously, it gets old. It’s toxic. It’s exhausting. It makes you question why you even bother with this at all. I, for one, don’t need this in my life on a regular basis. No one does. So, instead of having real conversations about real issues, and doing real education, we’re walking away and letting the worst kinds of people win the internet.

    I’m tired, but I’m not ready to do that. If 19 years of working to educate people, and let anyone know that they are not alone as a survivor, or as a person dealing with mental health issues, isn’t enough for you, and you can’t understand that all of the things I do online to make this happen I do in my spare time, for free, then you can go somewhere else.

    Take all of your fake outrage and fake “facts” with you too.

  • |

    Getting it Done

    One of the things I, and other survivors, struggle with is change. Change creates stress, and makes us uncomfortable, and if there’s anything survivors crave, it’s the comfort of what we know. New things tend to throw us, creating uncertainty and we have learn since early ages to try and keep things as certain as…

  • Quick Thought #23 – Change is Needed, but Callousness is Not

    As I have said many times, solving the mental health issues that plague the US will involve a lot of hard work, difficult conversations, and measured steps to create positive impacts for all of us. Adults need to be adults and have mature discussions about how to help as many suffering people as possible. 

    What we’re seeing from our government now is anything but adults being mature.

One Comment

  1. Thank you for you courage to cope. I am trying to heal from quite a few things myself including child abuse. It’s been tough when I feel like denial is really a powerful thing that has shaped me just as much as the abuse itself. Denial is another thing I find frightening to face, especially in the psychiatric profession. I am listening to myself and trying to heal. Depression is still an issue for me. I am still looking for the right therapist. View my blog, especially the link on child abuse. I felt this psychotherapist took a really eloquent and sensitive approach towards the real impact on survivors. He is building a monument to survivors.

    Smokey

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

To respond on your own website, enter the URL of your response which should contain a link to this post's permalink URL. Your response will then appear (possibly after moderation) on this page. Want to update or remove your response? Update or delete your post and re-enter your post's URL again. (Find out more about Webmentions.)