About this blog
this blog is strictly for gathering information from abuse survivors for my book research. i'm looking for honest gut feeling responses to the threads that i post, from you. please answer as many as you want, go back to threads as many times as you wish. perhaps one day you post something, and another day you feel something entirely different. that's ok. it's ok to respond differently than what you did before.
thank you for contributing to my book research. i really appreciate the time you take to respond to each topic.
this blog remains the property of Healing from Abuse. all contributions will be considered for publication. your posting to these threads indicates that you are well aware that it may be used for publication and you agree to having your comments be considered for publication.
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i am an incest survivor, a mother of three beautiful kids, and a wife. life has been a struggle for me ever since i can remember, but with a little help along the way ... well, ok, alot of help along the way ... i am dealing with life a whole better and things are not as chaotic as they have been.
i still deal with pain. but i am learning alot and it isn't so painful anymore.
so i share some of the things i've learned with you here. i have written the Healing Steps that i took to come out of the pain of incest. i would like to hear your comments about their effectiveness and i'd like to hear your stories, poems, and journal writings.
i will not be responding to your posts here. this is strictly for gathering stories, insights, and comments for my book research. if you would like feedback, please join my group: Healing from Abuse.
thank you so much for contributing to my book project and telling your story. ... the Truth will set you free from the pain!
blessings to you,
barbara
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JOIN OUR GROUP
Healing from Abuse Group
ABOUT THE GROUP
this support group designed to meet the needs of men and women who are healing from sexual, emotional, and/or physical abuse. Healing from Abuse is a group that will address the very unique issues and challenges that arise for men and women in this situation. it is the only one of its kind here on myspace.
if you want to heal from your abusive past, this is the group for you. this group is about finding answers and applying them to your own life. it's about taking charge of your life and making it better for yourself. it's about finding out who you are, listening to yourself and your feelings, acknowledging them, honoring them, and celebrating who you are, because you are so very worthwhile and deserve all the happiness you could possibly have. it's about breaking free of the bondage of emotional pain and becoming the person you were meant to be. it's about finding the person that you are deep down who is hiding behind all of the issues. issues like mistrust, anger, fear, anxiety, worthlessness, and everything else associated with experiencing the trauma you've experienced.
PLEASE POST WHATEVER YOU WISH HERE - THIS IS FOR YOU TO EXPRESS YOURSELF AND FIND OTHERS WHO CAN SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGE YOU! THIS IS YOUR GROUP!
also, this group is interactive, meaning there will be posts that ask you to respond if you are serious about taking your life back and heal from the pain. i encourage you to respond to the HEALING STEPS posts as you will be an encouragement to others as they see your strength, courage, and faith in knowing that you have control over your own life now and no one can take that from you, and that is true for them also.
NOTE: click on PRIVACY and adjust your settings to be included in the postings of the HEALING STEPS on the group bullitens. they will show up on your own profile page and let you know when a new one has been posted.
this group has many articles and information on it regarding healing. please feel free to post what you have found to be helpful in your own healing process. and please, post a short comment on anything that you find helpful and interesting so that others will be encouraged to read it too.
but most of all, this is a group where we are safe enough to tell the secrets, to tell our stories, and to find support and encouragement from others who have been where we have been and know the strugglies and pain.
it's about making friends here and learning to trust again, to develop relationships by sharing your most intimate self, as much as what you are willing to share, and have your personhood be understood, appreciated and validated. in order to begin to break free of the pain, you must speak your heart, dare to be yourself and tell your secrets so that others can surround you with the understanding and support that you need.
one more thing. we have a professional therapist as a member of our group who will be answering questions that you post on the bulliten board. her name is amy. if you would like to submit a question for her to answer, please post it as a bulliten with the subject line: "question for amy." though she cannot answer you personally, she will be writing articles that address the questions that are posed to her.
welcome to the group. i hope you will find it comfortable here and easy to share your heart so that you, too, can find healing for your soul.
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disclaimer: this is not a professional therapy group. anything shared here is strictly from personal experience. you and you alone are responsible for making the right choices for yourself to aid in your healing process.
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a little bit about the moderator of this group:
i am an incest survivor. i didn't know that until 2 years ago though, because i did not know the definition of the term. so for 46 years i have been a walking time bomb, ready to explode at any time and not understanding why. i have been married for 25 years and have experienced the intense roller coaster ride of emotional ups and downs that an abusive past creates. my marriage has been threatened many many times because the pain has been too much to bear and neither one of us could stand much more. but because of our beautiful kids, we have stuck it out through thick and thin because we have not wanted to break up our little family and cause more pain than what we were already experiencing. it has been worth it, but it has taken repeated committment and perseverance from both of us to make this work. i haven't regretted any of it.
when i learned that the chaos and pain i had been experiencing all of my life was due to sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect (as all of the books have described), i did not know if i could survive it. my world as i knew it ceased to exist, and i had to pick up the shattered pieces and rebuild my life, piece by piece, believing somehow that the broken shards of my life would ultimately create a beautiful mosaic that would catch the Light and glisten ... that my life would come out of the deep darkness and become something that others could see, as scary as it was to reveal it. and that in dealing with the dark issues that were before me, the light of truth would shine through, creating beautiful dancing patterns on my mosaic life that i could finally embrace and enjoy and then share with others.
it has been a difficult task. it has been an undaunting task at times. there have been times that i have laid in bed, sobbing, wanting to die because of the intense pain. but i found a therapist who understood my pain and who led me out of my overwhelming fears and who continues to work with me today to bring more healing, more truth, and more light to my ever changing mosaic life.
i started this group because i want to share the healing steps that i have learned with others here. life is too short to live in overwhelming pain every day. i want to provide hope that you, too, can break free of the turmoil and make sense of your pain. i want to provide guidance and direction for you to find Truth that will, indeed, set you free. i want to tell you that every healing step is worth it, no matter how difficult or painful it is. it is in going through the pain that we can be released of it, and it is in burying the pain that it destroys us.
and so i continue on my own healing journey, sharing it with you here. i am posting my story under "barbara's story" if you'd like to read it and/or comment on it. i want to encourage you, too, to share your own story, because it is worth being read.
i need you as much as we need each other. please don't hestiate to make your own comments on anything that i post ... i need your support and encouragement too.
here's to our healing journey ... together. and together, we will heal!
love and blessings to all,
barbara
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Non-Profit Organization
Healing from Abuse exists to meet the needs of women everywhere to heal from the aftereffects of abuse. with the help of Amy Van Gunst, our professional counselor, we will begin with a local area therapy-support group. this will be a 12-week program meeting 1.5 hours regularly.
it's not just local. we will be expanding it to include classes offered through seminars, monthly luncheons, women's retreats, benefit concerts, and a host of other ways we can meet the needs of people who are struggling, which will be advertised worldwide. we need your help as we get this program off the ground. you can help with your purchases on our online store.
thank you in advance for all of your support and encouragement!
~barbara
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I welcome your messages!
My Chatname on GAIM/AOL/Yahoo:
bkompik
