A persistent sense that you should not have survived, or should have done more, or that your survival came at someone else's expense. Or guilt about the things you did, or did not do, to get through. Survival is not clean, and this effect carries the weight of that.
It can sound like
“I feel guilty that I survived when others did not.”“I did things I am not proud of to get through.”“I do not feel like I deserve to be here.”“I keep asking why me.”
If any of those sentences live in your head too, you are in good company here.
Experiences this often follows
Effects do not come from nowhere. These are some of the experiences that people who carry this one often describe. You do not need to have been through any of them for what you feel to be real.
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.
If you check this, pick the meeting and the exact time below.
The system checks the schedule first: a meeting that was cancelled
ahead of time never becomes a report against the host.
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