Thoughts to Ponder
When you know that what you're doing is right, nothing will be able to stop you. When you are absolutely convinced of the true value of your efforts, you'll have the courage and the persistence to see them through. To believe in what you're doing is not just important. It is everything.
Anything less cannot possibly succeed. For any accomplishments you reach while living a lie will ultimately be of no value.
It is not always easy to live true to your highest values, true to your authentic self, true to what you know is right. Yet it is always your best choice.
When you deny what you know is right in order to follow the expediency of the moment, the benefits you gain are trivial and fleeting. Choose instead to live each moment true to the highest values you know.
Then, who you become will be the fulfillment of who you truly are. Why would you ever want to be anything less? —Ralph Marston
| Aftereffects
of Sexual Abuse
|
|
|
Aftereffects of Sexual Abuse/Incest Summary In summary, the legacy of every unhealed sexual abuse survivor includes diminished self-worth, limited ability to trust, and the burden of a shameful secret she or he cannot express. This legacy leaves the survivor's ability to develop necessary social contacts inhibited. She remains co-dependent on her caretakers--her nuclear or extended family, foster parents or her surrogate family, babysitter, doctor or priest--who are frequently her abusers. Tragically, once she has been abused, other perpetrators recognize her vulnerability and she will become victim to another abuser. She is left with the tremendous conflict of--feeling a need to .keep her guard up. while never 'needing anyone'; simultaneously, the festering wound of the abuse and neglect forces her desperation to 'fill it.' The conflicting messages in her childhood were not, 'Come here and I will abuse you,' but, 'Come here because I love you and I want to show affection'; she was deceived, and the affection she expected was in fact abuse. Thus, the expected affection can no longer be trusted. She has learned that the appearance of love is something quite different, and she cannot trust it or feel safe. |
