An effect of trauma
Sexually harming someone
Having sexually harmed another person. As a child or a teenager acting out what had been done to you, or as an adult. Coercing, pressuring, or forcing someone. Crossing a line with a child. This is the least sayable thing there is, which is exactly why it goes unaddressed for years while the risk stays where it is. Having been abused raises the odds of this and it is not a defence, and the people who stop are the ones who eventually said it to somebody.
If a child or anyone else is reachable by you right now, that comes first and it comes today. Remove your access to them and tell someone who can act, before anything else. Beyond that, being able to name this is the single thing most associated with it stopping. That is not a comfortable sentence and it is a true one. You are responsible for what you did. You were also a person something happened to. This place is not a substitute for specialist help and reporting obligations, and it is a place where the sentence can be said instead of carried in silence for another decade.
It can sound like
If any of those sentences live in your head too, you are in good company here.
Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing here decides what is wrong with you, because nothing is wrong with you. Something happened to you. This page exists so that when you are ready, you can find people who understand it from the inside.
You do not have to carry this alone.
Bridge of Hope Recovery is a free, anonymous, peer-led fellowship for trauma survivors. Meetings run throughout the week by phone, by video, and in person. No cost, no waitlist, no one asking for your real name.