When a victim is raped, it is never "in the past" for the victim, because it changes us. Permanently.
We are the ones left, struggling daily, to live & cope with the complex post-trauma, which can be debilitating. Soul destroying.
When people worry about how a rapist may have his future wrecked if he is held accountable - think about the life-sentence the perpetrator leaves the victim with.
She has just written my script. Thank you @DrJessTaylor for understanding us.
I started to believe he is right, he made me not believe in myself anymore and everything is my fault
Your abuser is going to lie about you. A lot. They are going to pretend that none of it ever happened. They are going to reposition themselves as a victim of you. They are going to claim you are crazy, vengeful and psychotic. Then they are going to use ‘mental health’ to also reframe themselves as vulnerable and in need of support and love because of what you have supposedly done to them.
They are going to turn loved ones against you. They are going to try to manipulate your kids. They are going to spend years convincing people that you are obsessed with them. That you still love them. That you’re jealous of their new partners. That you can’t stand that they moved on.
They are going to claim that you are a compulsive liar. That you are an attention seeker. That you have a victim complex. That you are emotionally unstable. That you have issues.
It’s a script. It’s a fucking blueprint. It’s the same thing over and over and over again, and you know what?
It works. The abuser is usually successful in the complete reframing of you, and you begin to question your own truth. You begin asking yourself if you are a liar. If you are exaggerating. Whether any of it ever happened. Whether you are mentally ill. Whether you are a good enough parent to your kids. Whether you should go to your doctor. Whether it would just be better to end it all.
I know thousands of women will read this post and comment underneath ‘this is exactly what happened to me’. This is what we are all up against when we disclose abuse or violence.
So I just want to remind you today that NO ONE can take away your truth, and the truth remains the truth no matter how much it is contorted and moulded by the abuser. They know what they did. And so do you.
@ParamilyUK He said she said
None care about the child
I stopped saying
I want to move on but he didn’t let go
He knew well that court support abusers
He knew how to destroy me for saying no
The #familycourt support abusers
It is about who can pay more and speak better
🤐
@SholaMos1 I hope he is charged with witness intimidation based on the horrendous vicious hate campaign he engaged following the announcement of this case
@SholaMos1 He suffered from the media with his mother and will not allow his wife and children to experience the same cycle, justice is sweet. Happy for his family
@jessphillips Not only that, in some cases like man the child is handed to the abusive parents and lost contact with the mother. The more I think about it the more numb I feel to survive day by day
@DrProudman It is fair to say that you can only change lives when people have 1) money 2)some women take their own lives
People like me are forgotten but I am not blaming anyone, there’s a long waiting list… maybe I should be point number two to be heard but I don’t want to I am resilient
Often, coping mechanisms develop during the abuse or sexual traumas and can continue for many months or years after you escape abuse.
For example, if you were abused for a long time by an unpredictable, aggressive person, one of your coping mechanisms may have been to become compliant, quiet and submissive. This may have worked many times to protect you from further violence or abuse, and then may become one of your coping mechanisms going forward. You may notice that you revert to this behaviour when people are being argumentative, confrontational or are becoming aggressive or loud around you.
Therefore, exploring where our coping mechanisms come from and when we first started using them can give us important insight into our thoughts, feelings and behaviours now.