Rape Support Group
If you or someone you know has been the victim of rape, this is the place to find support and get advice. If you want, discuss your experience, share your feelings, and meet others going through a similar situation.
If you or someone you know has been the victim of rape, this is the place to find support and get advice. If you want, discuss your experience, share your feelings, and meet others going through a similar situation.
After a while you realize that most people you know aren't going to get it, and that it's like trying to get blood out of a turnip - it's not gonna happen, and it might hurt your feelings to try, because of their responses. Unfair as it is, it might also hurt their feelings because it's like you're telling them that they can't be a good enough friend to you. On the Resurrection After Rape website there are free downloads you can use to give some of the people in your life, if you think that might help. One is "Things Not to Say to a Survivor". There is a 17 page Parent's Guide to Helping a Daughter that Has Been Raped." You can highlight things that are relevant, like parts that say not to stop counseling sessions or medications. It's tiresome having to train the people in your life, and after 40+ years, I've found that it works better for me to either journal or talk to a trusted friend in a limited way, without freaking her out with details, if something related to the rapes comes up and I want to talk about it. I'm new to this group, but coming here really helps because I know the people here understand. I read people's posts, and feel for them, because I understand too, and want to help.
I still have flashbacks and respond to triggers after more than 40 years, because rape is a kind of trauma. You wouldn't expect someone who'd gone through a serious car crash to forget about i, or to stop wearing a cast on their broken leg before it's healed. You don't just forget about rape. You don't just get over it. It's not like a cold - it's more like a chronic condition that you learn to cope with better and better over time. I've learned how to manage my symptoms, I've learned the difference between friends and acquaintances, I've learned to share my history on a need-to-know basis only. I've learned to speak out when I feel it necessary, but keep my own counsel at other times, to protect myself.
Continue taking care of yourself, and try not to feel too pressured about what your friends and family want. They just don't understand. You know what you are feeling and what you need. You're not alone. I wish you the very best, and I know all these other people here do, too.