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Abuse Survivors Quotes

Browse 242 quotes about Abuse Survivors.

Abuse Survivors Quotes

“Being indifferent about sexual abuse is an absolute assault on the truth of who the victim is!”

IndifferenceSexual AbuseAbuse SurvivorsSexual AssaultChildhood TraumaAbused WomenChildhood Sexual AbuseJIndifference And BullyingChildhood Abuse Quotes
Book:Breaking Free From the Chains of Silence: A respectful exploration into the ramifications of abuse hidden behind closed doors
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“The abuse experience might have made her suspicious of anyone wanting to help and support her. Her abusive partner probably twisted the concept of trust in such a way as to shatter her willingness to trust others. It might be hard for her to fathom that an anchor has no agenda except to care about her. However, it is the very process of learning to trust her anchor which can help an abused woman. Through that relationship she can be reminded what real trust is, who is trustworthy, and how to trust someone again or for the first time.”

TrustAbuseAbuse Survivors
Book:To Be An Anchor in the Storm: A Guide for Families and Friends of Abused Women
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“As Abby began to trust Justine more, the lack of trust she had for her husband became more apparent and uncomfortable for her. As she attempted to discuss these concerns with her husband his abuse of her worsened. At the same time, her trust in her cousin was strengthening. When Abby decided to leave her husband, seeing little chance for change in their relationship, Justine was the first person she called for help.”

TrustAbuseAbuse Survivors
Book:To Be An Anchor in the Storm: A Guide for Families and Friends of Abused Women
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“In healthy development, trust evolves. How do we decide whether to trust? We share a feeling with someone and watch their reaction; if the response feels safe, if it is caring, noncritical, non-abusive, the first step of trust has developed. For trust to grow, this positive response must become part of a relatively reliable pattern… Trust develops with consistency over time.”

TrustBoundariesAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsTrust IssuesBuilding TrustBuilding RelationshipsHard To TrustHealthy BoundariesTrustworthy FriendsTrustworthy QuotesHeading The Past
Book:Secret Survivors: Uncovering Incest and Its Aftereffects in Women
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“I screamed, "Give it to me!" Screaming as if the louder I became the more my fear would be released. And he gave me the glass and walked away. I took the glass and hid it, and my body felt like I had just been beaten up or ran thirty miles. I had to stand up to my father, the authority figure. The one who should be taking the glass from ME, teaching ME right from wrong. The most frightening figure in my life and the first man we all ever loved. Frightening? Without knowing, I had already been imprinted, stamped by their behavior and all that they were. As much as I wanted my life to be better, the only tools I had to navigate the world were given to me by them. How they talked. How they fought. How my mom made concessions. How they loved and who they loved shaped me. If I didn't bust out of all that, would this exhaustion and depletion be what I would feel after every fight in my life, even the small ones? That fight marked the beginning of my shift. Looking back on that night when I stood up to my dad and wiped up my mom's blood, I knew my life would be a fight. And I realized this: I had it in me.”

CourageAbuse SurvivorsStand UpFather Relationship
Book:Finding Me
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“I will continue healing from . . . trauma, and I won't quit until it is done. I will not hide my scars. I will stand strong and confident in my worth, so others can see it is possible. We are not alone, we survivors. We are stronger together.”

TogetherHealingStrengthSelf ImprovementDeterminationAutismAbuse SurvivorsOvercoming Challenges QuotesSurvivors Of Abuse
Book:Dandelion Ch;ld: An Autistic Life Shattered and Reforged
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“As we move away from the old role in which we were helplessly entrapped as a victim, we make friends with the people who affirm us. Their enthusiasm about us mirrors the positive experience we are having.”

HealingFriendsEmpowermentVictimRecoveryMoving OnSurvivorFriendshipsAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsAffirmingHealing From AbuseRecovery From AbuseVictim RoleThriver
Book:Beyond Survival: A Writing Journey for Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse
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“When shame is met with compassion and not received as confirmation of our guilt, we can begin to see how slant a lens it has had us looking through. That awareness lets us step back far enough to see that if we can let it go, we will see ourselves as clean where we once thought we were dirty. We will remember our innocence. We will see how our shame supported a system in which the perpetrators were protected and we bore the brunt of their offense — first in its actuality, then again in carrying their shame for it. If the method we chose to try to beat out shame was perfectionism, we can relax now, shake the burden off our shoulders, and give ourselves a chance to loosen up and make some errors. Hallelujah! Our freedom will not come from tireless effort and getting it all exactly right.”

FreedomHealingShameGuiltRecoveryInnocenceImperfectOffenseSexual AbusePerfectionismChild Sexual AbuseAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsIncestHealing InsightsAbusersPerpetratorsChild RapeHealing From AbuseRecovery From AbuseAbuserInnocence LostPerfectly ImperfectBurdens Of The PastFalse GuiltPeptrator
Book:Beyond Survival: A Writing Journey for Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse
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“The stovetop was as hot as the sweltering summer day. Mom slowly stirred her bubbling stew made from the old family recipe Of generations past. With one cup each of abandonment, alcoholism, shame, and rage, she served me up a hefty, foul portion. I swallowed it all like mom told me to but was left with only hunger--for compassion, safety, nourishment, and love.”

InspirationalWomenAbuse SurvivorsGrief And HealingRecovery From Abuse
Book:First, I Believe You: A True Story of Healing from Hidden Memories of Severe Childhood Trauma
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“when traumatic events are of human design, those who bear witness are caught in the conflict between victim and perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement and remembering.”

EvilAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsChildhood TraumaSociety DenialChild Abuse PreventionHear No Evil
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. Secrecy and silence are the perpetrator’s first line of defense. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure that no one listens. To this end, he marshals an impressive array of arguments, from the most blatant denial to the most sophisticated and elegant rationalization. After every atrocity one can expect to hear the same predictable apologies: it never happened; the victim lies; the victim exaggerates; the victim brought it upon herself; and in any case it is time to forget the past and move on. The more powerful the perpetrator, the greater is his prerogative to name and define reality, and the more completely his arguments prevail.”

SilencePowerAbuseCriminalsChild AbuseSexual AbuseRapeSecrecyAttackingCredibilityAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsAbuse Of PowerAbusersPerpetratorsSociety DenialBacklashAllegationsSurvivors Of AbuseRepressed MemoriesRecovered MemoriesRapistsTrauma MemoriesSilencing DissentSurvivor Of AbuseAttacking PeopleFalse Memory Syndrome MythLack Of AccountabilitySilencing Children
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“In a state of grace with myself, I do not abandon myself when the going gets tough or should others find me antithetical in any way in their frames of reference. Loyalty means care and kindness at all times, and particularly when they are needed to reduce the pain of difficult times. I never, absolutely never, side with anyone who is against my welfare. I aid nobody who detracts from my dignity, who makes me feel less than human either through subhuman onslaughts or superhuman demands. I fight or avoid people whose effect is ultimately destructive to my validity as a person, or who in any way dilute my ability to take myself seriously.”

InspirationalCompassionSelf EsteemRecoveryAbuse SurvivorsAbuse Recovery
Author:Theodore Isaac Rubin
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“Toxic relationships are dangerous to your health; they will literally kill you. Stress shortens your lifespan. Even a broken heart can kill you. There is an undeniable mind-body connection. Your arguments and hateful talk can land you in the emergency room or in the morgue. You were not meant to live in a fever of anxiety; screaming yourself hoarse in a frenzy of dreadful, panicked fight-or-flight that leaves you exhausted and numb with grief. You were not meant to live like animals tearing one another to shreds. Don't turn your hair gray. Don't carve a roadmap of pain into the sweet wrinkles on your face. Don't lay in the quiet with your heart pounding like a trapped, frightened creature. For your own precious and beautiful life, and for those around you — seek help or get out before it is too late. This is your wake-up call!”

SpiritHealingAnxietyStressRecoveryAbuse SurvivorsToxic RelationshipsToxic PeopleHealing InsightsMind Body ConnectionToxic Friends
Author:Bryant McGill
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“Nobody has ever killed themselves over a broken arm. But every day, thousands of people kill themselves because of a broken heart. Why? Because emotional pain hurts much worse than physical pain.”

PainEmotionsAbuseSuicideBetrayalCheatingAbuse Survivors
Book:Bad Choices Make Good Stories (Omnibus): How The Great American Opioid Epidemic of The 21st Century Began - a Memoir
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“Too many individuals have been wrongly instructed that biblical love means they must be "nice," and suffer quietly--even if they are mistreated and abused. But as C.S. Lewis wisely wrote, 'Love is more stern and splendid than mere kindness.”

LoveAbuseBoundariesReal LoveBiblicalEmotional AbuseAbuse SurvivorsC S Lewis Quotes
Book:The Emotionally Destructive Relationship: Seeing It, Stopping It, Surviving It
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“I learn more about myself as I quietly exist within the realm of my non-human family. This kinship, greater and more enduring than any other I’ve known, holds the maps of ancient wanderings. As I travel alongside Bee, River, Cloud, and Hawk, I join with my essential lineage and cleanse my wounds.”

GrowthNatureHealingSelf HelpWellnessAbuse Survivors
Book:Transcending Sexual Trauma: Self-Awareness Tools and Nature Based Practices to Cultivate Inner Healing
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“In modern psychology, the demons are aspects of the psyche. In shamanic terms, the demons are aspects of the Shadow Body, the hidden aspect of the personality that abuses other people in order to gain power known as divine love. The Shadow Body is the subtle body composed of twelve layers of anti-matter hooked to the human body. The Shadow Body influences the angular rotation of particle spin that creates emotion like fear. The Subtle Body or Shadow Body is not evil. You do not want to disown the shadow body as that creates soul loss. The Shadow Body is a wayshower to your needs.”

FearFearlessAbuse SurvivorsMetaphysical QuotesDemonic PossessionSubtle BodyShamanism QuotesShadow BodyWay Shower
Author:Deborah Bravandt
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“Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection with others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. Trauma isolates; the group re-creates a sense of belonging. Trauma shames and stigmatizes; the group bears witness and affirms. Trauma degrades the victim; the group exalts her. Trauma dehumanizes the victim; the group restores her humanity. Repeatedly in the testimony of survivors there comes a moment when a sense of connection is restored by another person’s unaffected display of generosity. Something in herself that the victim believes to be irretrievably destroyed---faith, decency, courage---is reawakened by an example of common altruism. Mirrored in the actions of others, the survivor recognizes and reclaims a lost part of herself. At that moment, the survivor begins to rejoin the human commonality...”

FaithHumanityCommunityHealingCourageSocietyAbuseVictimAffectionRecoveryGenerosityConnectionBelongingSurvivorIsolatedRejectedAltruismPtsdDecencyAbuse SurvivorsOutcastInhumanSurvivorsBondingInhumanityBondHealing InsightsTraumatic ExperiencesBondsTraumatizedDehumanizationInhumaneRecovery From AbuseHealing AbuseConnection With PeopleDehumanisationLoss Of SelfVictimizedNo Longer HumanDehumanizeDehumanizedInhumane TreatmentFeeling HumanLoss Of Social InteractionReclaiming DignityReclaiming Your Life
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“Miracles can be found in the most unlikely of places. I found the light not by swimming to the surface, but by letting myself drown in the seas of my deepest fears. Not by eradicating the dark, but by embracing it. I realized that there is no such a thing as darkness, only light and the absence of it. It is there in the light of unconditional love that I finally found the freedom I had been searching for so long.”

SpiritualitySelf LoveEmpowermentMental HealthTraumaAwakeningEmotional AbuseAbuse SurvivorsOvercoming Challenges QuotesEmotional Neglect
Book:Winter Magnolia
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“Even if our survival skills have become impediments we would like to let go of because they have ceased to serve us, we can still love ourselves with them. In appreciation of our survival, we can be awed at how our resources brought us through, even when these resources were things like indifference, a wall of rage, a cold heart…We learn to embrace ourselves as humans with faults and problems.”

HealingSurvivalEmpowermentRageRecoverySurvivorSelf AcceptanceChild Sexual AbuseAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsHealing InsightsChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorSelf Acceptance QuotesSurvival SkillsSurvivorshipValuing Yourself
Author:Maureen Brady
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“I had once thought that I came from a line of Gods, and I had punished myself for failing to be Godlike. But we were not Gods, and I was not the avatar for our family’s unraveling. I was just another product of inherited trauma, unresolved grief, and reactive survival mechanisms, like everyone else who came before me. We were mortals who felt ashamed when we failed to appear omnipotent.”

CultureFamilyAbuseMemoirIndianAbuse Survivors
Book:They Called Us Exceptional: And Other Lies That Raised Us
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