Emotional and psychological harm

Having someone use your mental health against you

Someone who used your mental health history, diagnoses, or struggles as ammunition. Who told others you were crazy. Who used your vulnerabilities to discredit you, control you, or take things from you.

Having your struggles turned into ammunition teaches you to hide the very things that most need care. If someone called you crazy to control you or discredit you, being honest about your mental health afterward can feel like handing over a weapon. In this fellowship, honesty is never used against anyone. That rule is the floor everything else is built on.

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.

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. Not trusting your own memory Second guessing what you remember. Medical avoidance Putting off appointments, leaving symptoms unexamined, cancelling at the door, or sitting in the car park and driving home. Hypervigilance The nervous system that learned to scan for danger all the time. 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. Anxiety The background hum of dread that is always there.

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

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