*Trigger warning*
I know very well that feeling when someone asks how you are but they don’t reeeeally want to know…
And let’s face it, we don’t like to talk about the hard things. It’s why so many of us don’t do it.
But when we do, the world changes. Which is why I can’t not talk about this.
I was sexually abused when I was a child.
The memories didn’t resurface for me until I was 35 years old. The symptoms had been affecting me for years, I just didn’t know what was causing them.
When I was around the age of 27, I had finally landed far enough away, into the arms of someone who deeply loved me and supported me enough for me to feel safe to completely fall apart and finally process it all.
I became extremely sensitive to foods, alcohol and much of life in general.
I became very very tired, to the point that I couldn’t function past 6pm.
I could no longer focus for long on tasks and I delayed completing my masters degree.
I was diagnosed with ADHD.
I had chronic fatigue for 5 years.
I had become a seasoned pro at brushing my pain under the rug and getting on with life…. Until the rug exploded and my life started to burn down with it.
I had internalized the worldview that women and girls were to be seen, used… but not heard.
I am now in my process of relearning to speak and to take a stand for being heard.
Because staying silent leads to all kinds of emotional toxicity, which tends to get in the way of me living my Most Fabulous Life.
And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let a broken and toxic worldview to continue to burden me with more pain than I am willing to carry.
So here is my truth.
I am 1 in 5 girls.
Yep. 1 in 5 girls have experienced what I have. Girls, not women…. children. Boys too.
This is the everyday reality we live in now.
This is…. common.
We are here, right next to you, doing the daily emotional work to stop gaslighting ourselves with the doubts we were taught by having our truth continually ignored.
We are carrying the shame from thinking something must be wrong with us for having these intense emotions that nobody is willing to validate.
We are breaking from the weight of the silence and the lack of education to enable our families and friends to support us to heal.
Silence is so freaking deadly.
So don’t you think it’s high time we talk more about this?
This is my truth. Please, tell us yours.