A few days ago, I was accepted into a Writer's Accountability Group. The honor and joy it brought was through the roof. The season of life I am in is better than I've experienced ever and it keeps getting better. The possibilities opening up to me are incredibly challenging. The contrast from the recent years of my life versus now is beyond description. I went from rock bottom where it literally pained me to living in my favorite city in the world. I left the abusive environment where I had spent most of my life, left all the traumatic memories, and probably most prominently, I left my abusers. I am safe for the first time in my life.
Childhood wasn't safe, yet I didn't know any better. I knew I was being hurt, I told people I was being hurt, it felt wrong, dirty, disgusting... yet I was never validated. When you're a child, and your parent tells you your feelings are irrational... you believe your parent. Not only with that incident, I learned not to trust my feelings. Imagine touching a hot stove and burning your finger. It hurts! Yet you are told by someone you respect, "oh, you're fine. That didn't hurt...".
Bottom line. It messes you up. Bad. And in a long term, disruptive way.
I am writing this on my cell phone in a bed with a horrible migraine. Side note: I have no idea why these words are being underlined, but I'm determined to continue writing so I'll try to fix it later. I'm trying to meet my word goal for the day so I keep writing.
Back to my initial thoughts, I don't want to - how can I put this- I don't want to make my writing all about me. I want to use my experiences to relate to readers, in combination with my psychology background, in hopes or educating people.
Bottom line- we only know what we experience. We can't compare our degree of pain with others because, for example, if you've never been homeless, you will never fully appreciate a warm, safe bed. I will never take a safe warm bed for granted again because I haven't always had it.
Believe it or not, there are long term effects of even temporary homeslessness. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder often replaces the homelessness situation. There's always a fear if you've been homeless before, it can happen again. That sticks in the back of your head. Plus, you don't want to leave your home because you fear your home won't be there when you come back. And you don't trust people, because the people who allowed you to be homeless before would likely allow you to be homeless again.
All this to say, everyone is fighting their own battles. Life is hard. Make a resolve to press on. Don't give up.I'm letting God lead my writing, feeling He has brought me this far to help others. Not sure how much I will personally share, particularly because the more I share, the more psychosomatic illnesses I acquire.
Which leads me back to the purpose of this blog. I know why I am in bed hiding under the covers writing this. One word- Trigger. When I told someone I was being sexually abused in middle school, I was told it was normal. All kids play doctor. I saw something on TV today that, well, sent me into a tail spin. I've known this on some level, but hearing this today... I'm questioning my whole life. I'll try attaching the video below.
If you are a child being molested, know it is not normal. I know it's hard to talk about and even harder to get someone to believe you... but if you tell a doctor or a therapist, by law, they must report it. Please, get help.
