Trigger Warning: Breakfast

[Z_California]

"The morning after I was raped, I thought I could create another story"

I don't post much, but I had to share this: Trigger Warning: Breakfast

[ck4829]

1. Surreal to say the least

There is something ingrained that protects rape culture, the first step is recognizing this.

[uppityperson]

2. k&r, indeed

[libodem]

3. That is extremely sad

And depressing Thanks for the trigger warning. I'm the person who needs one. But I clicked any way.

And I started thinking why didn't I run. Why, didn't I fight. Why didn't I tell. This will haunt me all day.

Probably therapeutic for the writer to get it all out. I have to admire her courage. It isn't always strangers. It likely will be an acquaintance, even a relative.

I still hate having it out of the groups that deal with this, and in the main forums.

It might not have ruined my day.

Yep. I have 'rape' key word hidden. But still it shows up.

[Z_California]

5. OMG I'm so sorry

<hug>

[libodem]

17. There is a survivors group

Here. It's more private than the front page. And less open for public consumption.

[Pastiche423]

7. I fought

and now I am paralyzed, in a wheelchair for life.

We both lived.

[seabeyond]

11. yes. nt

[libodem]

16. I hope your experience in court

Was successful. Having legal consequences help a little. But it does not unruin your life.

[Pastiche423]

21. Court?

They were never found.

While the loss of mobility sucks more than words, the PTSD I endure is far worse.

[seabeyond]

22. ....

how long has it been? and i am so sorry pastiche.

[libodem]

25. Me too

I have scars. I'm sorry he wasn't caught. I hope you got some victim compensation or some kind of help.

I was young. It was a federal case. We 'won', but it is a hollow victory. No punishment is really comparable to a life time of feeling stained. But you get over it or not. Most days I don't think about it any more. Unless something like this makes me look.


That's it too. I take full responsibility it is not the OPs fault. There are times when it isn't our fault. And I know when those times are. Then there are times when people are responsible for their own behavior. I try not to blame other people for my current behavior.

I didn't need to rub my nose in this.

[libodem]

27. I didn't see 'they'

That is especially heinous.

[Skidmore]

23. I am glad you lived and

are here with us today. I'm sorry that this awful crime was committed against you.

[Warpy]

4. Wow, that punch line

Thank you for posting this. I think it happens a lot.

Women try to convince themselves it wasn't that big a deal.

Then it takes years to process it alone.

[Half-Century Man]

6. PTSD without the trigger of the sound of helicopters.

For a time, when my friend Micky would fade out, I'd jostle hm and ask what was wrong.
One day he told me.
I never jostled him again, I'd patently an few minutes and ask; "are you back now?"

[cali]

8. holy shit, that's brilliant. it says so much so poignantly and so bravely

thank you so much for posting. I can't tell you how much that little vignette means to me.

PLEASE: post more. much more

[Drew Richards]

9. Powerful

[seabeyond]

10. wow. nt

[one_voice]

12. k&r

what should I have done.

I didn't do enough to stop it.

I must have done something to encourage it

Who is that person looking back at me from the mirror.......

I'm not me anymore...

[Skidmore]

26. You are not alone.

And you did not deserve it. You are important and appreciated.

[Skidmore]

13. The smell of

Old Spice and tobacco to this day make me want to heave. How do you not be afraid to defend yourself when you are small and the person who is assaulting you towers over you? When he lives in the same house and the court returns him there time and time again? Fighting is not an options sometimes and running is. Some run to other geographical places and some, like me, run to the safe places they create on their internal landscape. All, I think, try to wall it up because trauma will consume the psyche. Not all succeed.

Thanks for posting this.

[libodem]

18. You are brave

Some smells make me sick, too. I hate being reminded, yet here I am. Does it help you to be triggered? I clicked, too.

Maybe, we still want to see if 45 years is long enough, not to give us flashbacks, to the smell of tanning lotion .

Seriously, I don't really recommend it.

[Skidmore]

19. Sometimes triggers aren't the most obvious

ones, but they do come, but with less frequency and intensity as the years have gone by. It has been half a century; yet they still come occasionally. Sometimes they creep in and turn a dream into a nightmare.

Years ago I read a book entitled "The Invulnerable Child" which helped me to understand coping and resilience in some and the havoc in the lives of others who live in chaotic and traumatizing environments. I've never run across another piece of professional literature that dealt with survival in a way that made more sense to me.

We are survivors, and that is good and positive.

[Mnemosyne]

14. One man that raped me showed up for dinner the next night as if nothing had happened after he was

asked. He had been my friend.

He did show up many years later and apologize for what he did, wanting to be friends again. I forgave him, but could never forget.

To all of us that have ever been raped...

[Skidmore]

20. (((Mnemosyne)))

Scars are on our souls to remind us. They are wounds if we don't let them heal and healing preserves us.

[laundry_queen]

15. Oh boy. BTDT. nt

[seabeyond]

24. too all telling their story in this thread, there is nothing any of us can do, but... you are heard.

i am sad for each and every of these stories.

[In_The_Wind]

28. Kicked and recommended