Physical violence

Being physically attacked by someone outside your family

Being attacked, beaten, or physically harmed by someone who was not family. A stranger, an acquaintance, someone from your community. Including things that were never reported or believed.

Being attacked changes the way streets, strangers, and ordinary evenings feel, sometimes permanently. Whether anyone was charged, whether anyone believed you, whether you ever told a soul, what happened was real. Your caution afterward was not weakness. It was your nervous system doing its job after the world showed it something true.

What can follow an experience like this

No two people carry the same experience the same way. These are some of the effects that people with this experience often describe. Having some of them, all of them, or none of them says nothing about how real what happened to you was.

PTSD After certain experiences, the brain can get stuck, replaying what happened through flashbacks, nightmares, or sudden intense reactions to things that remind you of it. Hypervigilance The nervous system that learned to scan for danger all the time. Insomnia Difficulty falling asleep. Trust issues Trust that was broken, repeatedly, by people who were supposed to be safe. Startle response The nervous system calibrated to danger will flinch at sounds, movements, or surprises that others barely notice. Anxiety The background hum of dread that is always there. Panic attacks A panic attack is not just anxiety turned up. Depression Not just sadness.

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.

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