Step I/Question V: Do you isolate yourself? If yes, how?
I don't normally look at it as 'I isolate myself'. I just happen to spend a lot of time alone/with very limited people.
The only people in my circle are my three children and my fiance. I don't talk to my family and since ending unhealthy relationships with past friends and my children's family, I haven't made any new friendships. Now that I am engaged, I do have new people in my life, his adult children, his friends and his family. But I don't really talk to any of them outside of when we are all hanging out. All that to say, outside my adult children and fiance, I don't have friends/family. So this makes it easier to spend a lot of time alone.
I started a new job 2 months ago, I am the ONLY person in the office. I have Vice President's who are my 'boss' and come into the office maybe once a week for a meeting or to sign checks. So now I am alone all day/all week at work — I'm starting to feel like this may not be a good thing.
Sometimes I accept invitations to attend something, and then when the day/time comes, I either end up being super late, or cancel all together. It can even be something that sounded good and I was looking forward to, but when the time came, I'd just rather be home or not be there— especially if I will have the house to myself :)
( Read more...Collapse )Hi everyone,
I am new to this group and I am also new to opening up about the sexual abuse I went through as a child. For a long long time I did not believe what I experienced was abuse as I didn’t think it was “bad enough”. I’ve recently been doing more research and can say I have pushed this down for too long, and it has affected me in ways I did not realize.
Long story short: my sister, who was one year older than me, throughout my childhood and adolescence, would use ‘games’ where she was my ‘dominant boyfriend’ or ‘the prince saving the princess’ or the ‘doctor helping the patient’ to force me into multiple inappropriate situations. It never went to the point of [TW: sexual language (click to open)]penetration but heavy petting and kissing were involved. It made me feel disgusting and for the longest time, even when I knew I was wrong, I told myself it was a mutual decision to play the games. But the reality is, I knew it was wrong. [TW: emotional and physical coercion (click to open)]There were times where I even physically tried to get away from her, and times where I asked her to stop, and she did not comply.
She did these things with me and my younger male cousin for multiple years. It stopped close to the end of high school and none of us has discussed it since. Ever since I have had an inclination of strange desires/attraction to younger people (she has shown signs of which and is also now dating a man convicted and registered with the national sex registry for having sexual relations with two underage girls, which is a problem in itself.)
The only reason I decided to search into this is that I now have two nephews. They are her nephews as well, and I am worried she will do things to them as she did to my cousin and I. I do not want to out her to my family or friends as we still have a familial relationship and I do love her. How do I go about protecting my nephews without upsetting their parents or having them want to cut ties with her?
Please help. At this point I do not know what to do.
I do try to nurture myself. I have my hobbies that I am starting to get back into. I exercise and try to eat healthy. I try to do things for myself. Always looking for ways to better myself, which I feel is a form of nurture - to nurture those things that make me, me.
Reaching out for support would be a NO. I attend SIA - 12 step meeting for Survivors of Incest. I get to hear other survivors struggles and hope and I get to share...when I can bring myself to. And I go to premarital counseling with my fiancée. But I do not have friends or a sponsor/fellow traveler that I reach out to for support. I usually hold it in till it just spills over and I share with my spouse or my adult daughter. I could say that I go to her for support.
Am I in touch with my feelings now? Definitely not. This is one of the biggest issues with my abuse. As I've mentioned, I don't struggle with flashbacks, etc. My struggle is my disassociation with myself and those closest with me. Which is because I am not in touch with my feelings. I feel like I go through life emotionally flatlining. I'm not in touch with my anger, which I feel is a good thing, but I am also not in touch with my happiness. I have so much in my life to be excited about, to appreciate, to look forward to. But because I am so detached, I just go through the motions in life and don't get to experience the joys.
I've watched all three of my children turn 18, graduate High School, one go off to the Army and get married, return home from the Army, and countless other 'life's high's' and through it all, I was numb. I got engaged 6 month's ago, moved in with him, changed jobs for less stress, planning a honeymoon in Hawaii. There is nothing in my life at this moment that I can complain about, but do I walk around, happy, experiencing this precious moment?? No, I'm flatlined. I would feel the same inside if all things were struggling. I want to enjoy life. I want to feel happiness. I want to feel the love that is surrounding me.
( Read more...Collapse )Trigger Warning
Thank goodness it doesn't affect me the way it use to!!!
There use to be a lot of shame around sex/masturbation. A lot of the sex I had was for the other person, not for myself. Even if I wanted to be sexual as well, once we started, it was as if I removed myself from it and just went through the motions of whatever the other person wanted to do. And even though I've had many giving partners who were looking to take care of me, not just themselves, and I wanted it/them too, once, we were in the act, I would regress. When I was younger, I had a lot of sexual triggers. Waking up to someone touching me sexually was a big one for a long time. My partners learned that one real quick. Giving oral was definitely a trigger. Receiving oral would cause me to regress. And again, even though, I enjoyed it, there was always this underlined checkout/regression/timid side of me that would come out.
For many years, I felt as if I were numb, sexually. My sexual body parts did not feel the sensations like it does today. I was unable to orgasm — I think when you train your body to not respond for so many years, it takes a lot of recovery to get it back.
The sexual abuse caused me to be promiscuous for many years of my life. Having sex with someone I just met or didn't even like was not unusual for me. If someone was persistent enough, I'd go along with it.
( Read more...Collapse )Step I/Question VII: How has the abuse affected how you feel about your body?
For one, the abuse made me HATE MY BODY. I will write on this after.
For two, the abuse made me HATE ME. I hated myself so much. I hated everything about me. On top of all the sexual abuse, my mom was an alcoholic/drug addict who would beat and abandon my brother and I, until my dad got custody of us when I was 6. My dad was an alcoholic/drug addict who was physically, mentally and emotionally abusive/was neglectful. He had a live in girlfriend who was a hard core alcoholic/coke head who was very abusive — including physical abuse. There was constant random abuse. And on top of ALL this, there was the sexual abuse. For those new to my writings, 3 incestual relations for 10 years, 1 incestual relation short term, 2 guys/1 night of sexual abuse age between 8-12, and one 3 month long relation with an adult male at age 14.
(TW)
( Read more...Collapse )Step I/Question VI: Do you isolate yourself? If yes, how?
I don't normally look at it as 'I isolate myself'. I just happen to spend a lot of time alone/with very limited people.
The only people in my circle are my three children and my fiance. I don't talk to my family and since ending unhealthy relationships with past friends and my children's family, I haven't made any new friendships. Now that I am engaged, I do have new people in my life, his adult children, his friends and his family. But I don't really talk to any of them outside of when we are all hanging out. All that to say, outside my adult children and fiance, I don't have friends/family. So this makes it easier to spend a lot of time alone.
I started a new job 2 months ago, I am the ONLY person in the office. I have Vice President's who are my 'boss' and come into the office maybe once a week for a meeting or to sign checks. So now I am alone all day/all week at work — I'm starting to feel like this may not be a good thing.
Sometimes I accept invitations to attend something, and then when the day/time comes, I either end up being super late, or cancel all together. It can even be something that sounded good and I was looking forward to, but when the time came, I'd just rather be home or not be there— especially if I will have the house to myself :)
I do select isolation when in a group setting. I will find a tucked away spot to be and not have to interact. If I can't get away physically, then I will disengage from the conversation. Letting everyone else talk. If necessary, I will throw in an occasional uh huh or that sounds interesting. But I do not engage in the conversation, even when it is something that I can relate to or have input on. I always feel like I'm doing this by choice, but when the time comes when I really should be participating in the conversation (still getting to know my fiancé's adult children and trying to interact is painful) I can't find a way to engage/participate. And it is an awful feeling.
Hello. I have been in Overeaters Anonymous for over 30 years and I am grateful for the priceless and plentiful recovery there. It was there in my first 4th/5th step that I first shared my story of incest. It was the first time I told anyone, the first time I said it out loud. I knew I had been molested by my grandfather at age 12 or 13 but I didn't want to be someone who had been molested so I never spoke of it even to myself. I began to understand at a fairly surface level the safety of the extra weight and the lack of clarity and boundaries in dealing with boys and then men. I saw for the first time my disconnect with my body and why going to doctors and dentists was particularly frightening. I went to two 12 step survivor meetings about 20 years ago. I got the book that was recommended. I read the first 30 pages at most and experienced many feelings when I did. Most seemed to be arousal which I felt odd and possibly shame about and it is here today that I can share that and pretty much feel like it would be understood.Time passed and I noticed that I had never returned to the book or the meetings. Interestingly, I would share with friends that my house was so organized my shelves and cupboards in such a pleasing order except for my office closet. My office closet was lined with shelves on both sides and by now a huge stack of all kinds of things filled the center of the closet almost to the ceiling. It always baffled me that I would keep this closet in such disarray.
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Page Summary
johamon : Sigo sanando [+1] - freyjalee : Step I/Question VI: Do you isolate yourself/how? [+5]
- lacey_sue : I’m new here. Looking for support [+7]
- ruby12141 : I am worried for my nephews [+4]
- freyjalee : Step 1/Question X: Do you nurture yourself and reach out for support? [+1]
- freyjalee : Step I/Question IX: Are you in touch with your feelings now? [+1]
- freyjalee : Step I/Question VIII: How has the abuse affected how you function sexually? (TW) [+2]
- freyjalee : Step I/Question VII: How has the abuse affected how you feel about your body? [+2]
- freyjalee : Step I/Question VI: Do you isolate yourself/how? [+1]
- 1among : glad I found you [+2]
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