Identity-based harm

Being subjected to conversion therapy or attempts to change who you are

Being subjected to attempts to change your sexual orientation, gender identity, or other core aspects of who you are. Through religious programs, therapy, family pressure, or organized efforts. The harm of being told that who you are is something that needs to be fixed.

Being put through attempts to change who you are teaches a person that their own core is a defect to be corrected. Surviving that, whether it came through programs, prayer, or pressure, means healing from the harm and unlearning its premise. The premise was false. You were never broken, and there was never anything to fix.

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.

Hypervigilance The nervous system that learned to scan for danger all the time. Trust issues Trust that was broken, repeatedly, by people who were supposed to be safe. 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. Depression Not just sadness. Shame Not guilt about something you did. Identity disturbance Not being able to answer simple questions about yourself. Anxiety The background hum of dread that is always there. Problems with authority 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.

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