I am a survivor of domestic abuse and have told my story here. When I first stumbled upon Violence UnSilenced and read through the stories of those survivors brave enough to tell them, I felt inspired to reveal my secret and tell my story as well. It took me months to put the story into words. I kept rethinking what I was writing and couldn’t decide which parts I wanted to keep in and which I wanted left out. After finally finishing my draft, I then struggled for many more months with whether or not I actually wanted to submit my story. After all, it was something I held in for years, never telling anyone because I felt ashamed and embarrassed. So I went back to the site and read the stories of other survivors over and over again, and decided that I wanted to be just as courageous as them. I wanted to stand up and say “I have a story, too.” So this is it. My secret, my story.
2 comments:
Thank you Jean. It takes a lot of guts to put it out there the way you have. And I hope it was helpful to you. That somehow it will help you get back a piece of yourself.
I can promise you that it will help someone else. Because there are more stories just like yours than you can imagine -- both ones that have been told and ones that haven't. And somewhere, someone who is still suffering just like you did will read her own life in your words and realize that she's not alone.
Just as you are not alone.
My fondest hope is that this will somehow bring some peace to you. Because you deserve that.
Hey –
I read your story and followed your link here. You are lucky to be alive, and I am so glad that you are. You went through something horrific and you are walking on the other side of it. I spent 30+ years dealing with the abuse in my childhood. Just recently, a friend of mine suggested a book that helped me tremendously in dealing with the long terms effects of abuse. It is called TrueFaced, and was written by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and John S Lynch. You can find it at Amazon or at any major book store. Reading that book was a blessing.
Keep up the good work. Forgiveness is a good thing.
Arby
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