Institutional and systemic failure

Being re-traumatized by systems when you sought help

Going to a system or institution for help after something happened to you and being harmed again in the process. Being disbelieved, dismissed, blamed, or subjected to procedures that compounded your original trauma. The particular wound of reaching out and finding that reaching out made things worse.

If some version of this is part of your story, you already know that the hardest part is rarely the memory itself. It is carrying it in a world that mostly does not want to hear about it. This fellowship exists so you do not have to carry it alone, and so you never have to explain it to someone who has no idea what it means.

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.

Flashbacks and reliving what happened 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. Complex or ongoing trauma and its effects When trauma happened repeatedly, over a long time, or at the hands of people who were supposed to care for you, the effects go deeper than a single event. Loss of faith or not knowing what to believe anymore Something happened and the belief system that held your world together stopped holding. Hypervigilance or always waiting for something bad The nervous system that learned to scan for danger all the time. Not knowing who to trust Trust that was broken, repeatedly, by people who were supposed to be safe. Depression Not just sadness. Shame or feeling like something is broken in you Not guilt about something you did. Problems with authority or people in power The original experiences with authority figures, parents, teachers, institutions, abusers, shaping the automatic response to anyone who holds power.

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.

Find a meeting Join the fellowship

Need support right now?

Related experiences we cover

See everything we cover