Emotional and psychological harm

Being targeted by an organized campaign of online harassment

Being singled out and pursued by a group online. Waves of messages, threats, and abuse. Your name, photo, address, workplace, or family being posted publicly. Lies spread about you at a scale you had no way to answer. Being forced offline, out of a job, or out of a community by people you had often never met.

People underestimate this because it happened on a screen, and the fear it produces is not on a screen at all, it is in your body and in your front garden. Being hunted by a crowd of strangers is a real thing that happened to you. You do not have to justify it here before anyone will take it seriously.

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. Emotional numbness Not depression exactly. Insomnia or feeling unsafe enough to sleep Difficulty falling asleep. Depression Not just sadness. Being easily startled or jumpy The nervous system calibrated to danger will flinch at sounds, movements, or surprises that others barely notice. Brain fog, memory gaps, or trouble concentrating Trauma affects the brain in measurable ways. Thoughts about not wanting to be here Thoughts about not existing anymore. Struggling to make sense of what happened to you The questions that will not resolve.

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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