Physical & Emotional Abuse Support Group

Abuse is a general term for the treatment of someone that causes some kind of harm (to the abused person, to the abusers themselves, or to someone else) that is unlawful or wrongful. No one deserves abuse, period. Abuse can be emotional, physical, or sexual.

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Emotionally Detaching

Joanieslegacy
Joanieslegacy
Sometimes it's hard for me to not get too caught up in other's issues, even people I have never met in real life, especially when their stories are so similar to mine. It can trigger me back to my childhood, I want to find a way to pull them out of their situation, Any posts in which a child is being abused, be it physical, sexual, emotional, is just so hard for me to just advise and not be able to do much more. :(
I have found that I actually can stress out so much that I can work myself into getting sick.
I guess I just wanted to say that if I seem to not be as active in helping as I was, after giving someone information on help, resources on who to call and checking up on them, it is not because I don't care, it is because I care too much and the helplessness I feel is overwhelming me. So I have to take a break due to anxiety and health.
I hope I have made sense here?
MyTrueColors
MyTrueColors
I can relate. It's easy to get triggered by other people's stuff cuz it hits so close to home. After several years of therapy and now that I am in a training process, I welcome being triggered because it gives me yet another opportunity to heal. For me the only way I have found to really be able to detach emotionally is practice self care & to do my own work. And I will admit that it's sometimes very hard when I am deeply triggered.
~hugs~
RockinBunny
RockinBunny
Totally relate to this. As was there for everyone to see on this very board just a couple of days ago...

I am just very, very bad at detaching. Which is not a terrible thing sometimes. I have lived with the ultimate in detachment from others, and it is not nice at all. So the way I look at it is, "Well, it could be worse - I could not care at all. Like, in my mind, it could not even touch me. I don't want to be that!"

It is really hard, and like so many aspects of having been abused, some people just do not and will never get how it works or how intense it can be.

Thanks for your honesty and frankness in sharing this and pointing it out, Joanie and MTC xxx
Joanieslegacy
Joanieslegacy
Thanks for sharing MTC and Rockin. I just feel I am not far enough along to be able to handle triggers or be able to "detach with love" as some would call it. I don't want to be numb, although sometimes I wonder if those that have abused me who don't seem to suffer because they don't seem to feel are maybe not better off, as I seem to feel too much? Anyway, sometimes it seems like I absorb so much of others pain and anger, it eats at my own healing or any progress I might have made. Again, a lot of this is my own fault as I cannot seem to connect with a therapist to stay in therapy long enough or trust one long enough to get to the hard core stuff that needs to be dealt with.
I may have to take a break from here for awhile to get my head straight...