Quotes About Sexual Abuse Survivors

#1. Coming to terms with incest is not easy. Learning to be a survivor, not a victim, gives new meaning to life

Lynette Gould

#2. I sometimes continue to see myself in split ways; it causes me trouble and contributes to a lack of satisfaction with myself.

Maureen Brady

#3. During sexual abuse, children feel and incorporate the rage, pain, shame, and sense of perversion that the perpetrator is projecting. They take these feelings into the very core of themselves, and they are badly traumatized by the emotions surrounding the assault, as well as by the assault itself.

Renee Fredrickson

#4. I put the word "diagnosis" in quotes because I have not yet seen that case in which a "diagnosis" led to a "cure," or in fact to any outcome other than a confirmed, and therefore an enforced, debility.

Joan Didion

#5. I'm left with Haymitch in the rubble, wondering if Finnick's fate would have one day been mine. Why not? Snow could have gotten a really good price for the girl on fire.

Suzanne Collins

#6. People may not realize the damage that they are doing by placing the blame on the victim ~ but that doesn't lessen the damage that they cause by doing it.

Darlene Ouimet

#7. When we first begin to take power more directly, after long having kept our relationship to it underground...it is natural that we experience anxiety, even guilt, at putting ourselves first. These feeling let us know we are taking action; they do not need to stop us.

Maureen Brady

#8. Healing isn't just about pain. It's about learning to love yourself. As you move from feeling like a victim to being a proud survivor, you will have glimmers of hope, pride and satisfaction. Those are natural by-products of healing.

Ellen Bass

#9. Most of our informants [incest survivors] remembered their mothers as weak and powerless, finding their only dignity in martyrdom.

Judith Lewis Herman

#10. Incest is almost always a devastating experience for
the victim.

Susan Forward

#11. As part of the healing process, change your perception of yourself from "victim" to that of "advocate" and "survivor.

Don Easton

#12. ...there is a particular focus of the problem faced only by men. It arises from our culture providing no room for a man as victim.

Mike Lew

#13. Psychoanalysis is that mental illness for which it regards itself as therapy.

Karl Kraus

#14. I thought when the abuse stopped I could move on with my life. Instead I am still running from Brian. The only difference is now I am running from him in my dreams.

Erin Merryn

#15. Maternal absence, in one form or another, is always found in the background of the incest romance. Womens literature on incest generally treats the theme of maternal absence tragically. Mens literature trivializes it or treats it comically. And clinical literature tends to treat it judgmentally.

Judith Lewis Herman

#16. Abuse is a parasite that feeds off hate and shame, growing in size and strength with silence.

Nikki Sex

#17. You're too sensitive' victims of sexual abuse are told over and over by those whose reality depends on being insensitive. Most adults who have been in the victim role cringe when anyone tells them they are sensitive. In fact, sensitivity is a lovely trait and one to be cherished in any human being.

Renee Fredrickson

#18. Ultimately, I hope Jesus will save Buddhism, Islam and every other religion, including the Christian religion, which often seems to need saving about as much as any other religion does.

Brian D. McLaren

#19. Fearing the unknown within myself has kept me crouching in a corner. I look to see who I am and discover much that is worthy.

Maureen Brady

#20. By opening the door to my life, it is my hope and mission to shed light on the hidden wounds of abuse, to end the stigma and shame associated with abuse, and to show survivors true courage, strength, inspiration, and determination.

Erin Merryn

#21. Me father always said if ya can find a lass who's brilliant in the kitchen and in the bed ya best not let her go.

Sara Humphreys

#22. Sexual abuse injects poisonous lies into its victims' hearts and minds. "You're not worthy" is one of them.

Carolyn Byers Ruch

#23. Many survivors insist they're not courageous: 'If I were courageous I would have stopped the abuse.' 'If I were courageous, I wouldn't be scared'... Most of us have it mixed up. You don't start with courage and then face fear. You become courageous because you face your fear.

Laura Davis

#24. My mom called Grandma today and told her we would no longer be attending family parties. My mom told her we have had enough of being blamed for something Brian did and everyone brushing it off like it was no big deal.

Erin Merryn

#25. In theater, you go in-depth with your character, so coming to the States, it was inevitable to dig into the pilots I liked. I knew what characters I was going to be reading for, so I would dissect them and really get involved with them.

Adan Canto

#26. Don't judge yourself by what others did to you.

C. Kennedy

#27. I look upon the gift of my life as a wondrous journey.

Maureen Brady

#28. If I were free, as a physician, to say what I pleased, I would tell every abused person I see that there is an entire world out there that is nothing like the one you're living. Go discover it.

C. Kennedy

#29. I am filled with truth at my center where I once held shame.

Maureen Brady

#30. Always know there are friends somewhere rooting for you. There are people you don't know, always praying for you and lifting you before God. - Jenee, from "To the Survivors".

Robert Uttaro