Sexual violence

Being sexually abused as a child by another family member

Sexual abuse by a sibling, relative, or other family member during childhood. Often happening in secret, often never spoken about, often carrying shame that was never yours to carry.

Abuse inside a family thrives on silence, and families often protect the silence more fiercely than they protected you. If you told and were not believed, or never told because you knew what it would cost, both of those were survival choices made by a child doing their best. What happened was real, and here it will be treated as real.

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. C-PTSD 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. Insomnia Difficulty falling asleep. Trust issues Trust that was broken, repeatedly, by people who were supposed to be safe. Depression Not just sadness. Shame Not guilt about something you did. Anxiety The background hum of dread that is always there. Freeze response When the nervous system learned that neither fighting nor fleeing was possible, some people learned to go still.

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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