It is amazing how the hold on your life can be so significant when your abused. I believe this to be true with many types of abuse and doesn't really matter the number of occurrences. A person can be abused once and feel and act the same as someone who has been abused all of their lives.
People also respond to abuse differently--some survivors suffer through drugs, jail, becoming abusers and the list goes and then there are some that somehow someway keep on keepin' on. Very interesting how different we all our even with our situations seeming so similar. The "human" factor. I believe this to also be true in forgiveness....we all handle forgiveness in our own manner. I thought this excerpt from Beverly Flanigan was interesting.....as in my story those closest to us are the ones that hurt or injur us the most. She mentions that "Where love has been a part of the relationship, the shrapnel of the human destruction is strewn..." This sure applies to so many aspects of our lives....but so true to those that are abused....more are abused by those close to them then those they don't know.....
Excerpts from the book “Forgiving the Unforgivable” by Beverly Flanigan, M.S.S.W.
"Unforgivable injuries are the injuries of intimate people. When they happen, hearts are broken, and the essence of intimacy is destroyed. So, the worst kind of human wounds occur not on battlefields but in our homes. The worst injurers are not enemies or strangers in a foxhole but our husbands and wives, children, parents, and friends. Where love has been a part of the relationship, the shrapnel of human destruction is strewn in our living rooms and bedrooms in the form of aborted dreams and wounded hopes. Wars may terminate with the signing of peace treaties, but intimate injuries have no such formal mechanism for ending them. The most intimate of injuries are often left festering and unresolved-either unforgiven or unforgivable."
What is your story?? What was your reaction? Where are you at in your grieving process over the abuse that you have experienced. Love to hear your story.