I'm ten years older than you and I haven't given up yet. We might not ever be what we might have been if the abuse hadn't happened, but we can be a lot better than we are now. By "better" I mean more able to love ourselves, feeling more safe in our bodies, more sure that we deserve love and do not deserve shame and rejection, more grounded and whole.

Some people grow walls or scars or callouses to deal with what happened to them. They go into denial and have defenses and addictions to deal with the pain or take it out on others. If you're here talking to us that's probably not the case for you.

There is stuff I couldn't deal with all my life and I hope I'm ready to tackle it now. Maybe it takes a lot of years in the world to be ready to deal with certain stuff.

You're not alone!

You are not broken so you don't need to be fixed. You need to heal from what happened to you. And it is never too late to heal.

I didn't even remember what happened to me until I was 44 which, believe it or not, is not uncommon. My therapist actually works with many people who are in their 40's and 50's. She has seen that this is a common age for many to get to that point where they want to work on their healing.

Please don't give up. Maybe find another counselor if this one has taken you as far as s/he can. There are many types of therapies out there such as EMDR and Hypnotherapy. Please look around and don't give up on yourself. You can heal and you deserve to heal.

I used to think that too... waited to long, can't undo that mess. Believe me when I say that it sucks sometimes, you know that. You aren't alone. While I am sad for what happened to you, I am glad you found someone to talk to, glad you're here. Hope you keep coming back here, because sometimes you realize that the thing that made you feel so alone, the thing that made you feel so messed up, we all felt that. I hope you come back.

I believe that all of the above is true. Love & Hugs.