Please don’t think I’m bad too.” From the other innermost part of him, the secret animal that prowls in some men was a raging wolf ready to kill. The battle line within the man had...

An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.

Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It’s a strange feeling.

As he had kissed her neck, she could not repress the feeling she was a lamb making time with a wolf.

Facts do not fall in the face of discomfort.

People that hurt others, only act on a pain they feel themselves.

For the Wife Beater’s WifeWith blue irises her face is blossomed. BlueCircling to yellow, circling to brown on her cheeks.The long bone of her jaw untrackedShe hides in our kitchen.He sleeps it off next door.Her...

It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That’s how I come to know trees fear man.

You know all that sympathy that you feel for an abused child who suffers without a good mom or dad to love and care for them? Well, they don’t stay children forever. No one magically...

It’s not fair. It’s not fair that he lets his rage take over, that he lets it rule him. I don’t know why he has to let it rule him. I don’t know why he...

Today I’m going to pretend I’m dead. I wonder if anyone will notice.” – excerpt from: freefalling

Self-abuse is an infringement on one’s own destiny caused by either ignorance about oneself or negligence of one’s purpose!

Let’s face it: suffering discredits goodness. I’m agnostic in practice though faith-based in theory. I used to pray but now know he’ll do what he darn well pleases when he darn well pleases. Will he...

Being Scared-off by EvilLastly, we deny the presence of evil because we are terrified by the horrendously hurtful, cruel, and bloody kinds of evil people tell us about—if we are willing to listen. This was...

I do not use psychiatric terms in my writing because the entrenched and developing behaviours were perfectly normal reactions to abnormal situations.

This is my first real memory of James. In every memory before that, he’s just a flash of color, a warm body with a blurred face, a comforting voice begging me not to die. When...

Comment sections on the internet is like gang graffiti, abusive words sprayed like nonsense and it’s ugly to look at.

No one could leave the group by his or her own volition and put the group at risk of having its secrets revealed.

You are NOT an abuse survivor or victim. Leave your labels elsewhere because they are no longer serving you.

An abuser can seem emotionally needy. You can get caught in a trap of catering to him, trying to fill a bottomless pit. But he’s not so much needy as entitled, so no matter how...

The abuser does not believe, however, that his level of authority over the children should be in any way connected to his actual level of effort or sacrifice on their behalf, or to how much...

Other personalities are created to handle new traumas, their existence usually occurring one at a time. Each has a singular purpose and is totally focused on that task. The important aspect of the mind’s extreme...

The description of Huck’s father grabbed my full attention, and I glanced up at the book in my teacher’s hand as if to double check. My eyes bulged reflexively. Huck’s father was an abusive drunk...

Celibacy is the worst form of self-abuse.

If you cannot endure abuse from another, just say a simple word or two, or else leave.

One is that if women’s sexuality in Africa wasn’t under assault, if women were able to say no, if women weren’t subject to predatory attacks by men, or predatory behavior generally, then you would have...

You may be operating from the belief that you must do everything yourself because no one will ever be there for you. Or you may think that if you never speak up you’ll avoid being...

Throughout our times with Christopher [therapist] we were encouraged to work together at communicating on the inside. He pointed out that it would be good for us all to listen-in when an alter was telling...

Humility is not weak, powerless, faint, a pushover, a punching bag or an abuse magnet, because above all — humility cares.

They definitely take more abuse than any golfer ever will. Golfers are making a lot more money than skateboarders.

You have to respect a player and remember that he is in high school. But if people start to abuse that method of contact in some fashion and parents and players start complaining, then I’m...

All people cross the line from childhood to adulthood with a secondhand opinion of who they are. Without any questioning, we take as truth whatever our parents and other influentials have said about us during...

There are two types of memory frequently experienced by individuals who have had overwhelming trauma that has been suppressed psychologically or chemically. The first is general memory, experienced as an adult, in which there is...

You know something, it’s not easy to break out of your comfort zone. People will tear you down, tell you you shouldn’t have bothered in the first place. But let me tell you something, there’s...

And as she held me, I suddenly realized that my lifelong search for love and acceptance had finally ended in the arms of a foster parent.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuses of liberty as well as by the abuses of power.

I wondered about her chicken-and-egg relationship with Dad. Which came first? Her helplessness or his controlling?

They don’t like the thought of someone else making demands on the person whom they see as belonging entirely to them.

I’ve always considered myself a good person. I’ve never done anything to purposely hurt anyone. I was in shock that this happened to me, and because it did, I turned into this vengeful person. I’ve...

The scars from mental cruelty can be as deep and long-lasting as wounds from punches or slaps but are often not asobvious. In fact, even among women who have experienced violence from a partner, half...

The central attitudes driving the Drill Sergeant are:I need to control your every move or you will do it wrong.I know the exact way that everything should be done.You shouldn’t have anyone else — or...

the gravity of wound to fist

…they needed someone to explain, to spin, the parts of the tale that couldn’t be suppressed. Someone reputable and educated. Someone brilliant yet absolutely committed to the faith. Someone like my father.

Mental anguish always results from the avoidance of legitimate suffering.

I think that is supposed to be good, that I get less from him but I feel worthless.

And could you, from a place of love, actually stand up and, use force, to give someone back, the suffering, they were trying to put on you? Would I do it? Maybe it would even...

Never let kindness be your weakness, never let your weaknesses be your downfal

Your body is a temple, not a daily dumping ground for another person’s pain, anger, betrayal, judgment, hypocrisy, denial, games, jealousy or blame. When you are being psychologically, spiritually or emotionally abused by a person,...

I was lost in a void of perpetual darkness. Disconnected from myself. Turned inside out. No sign of life. Eventually, the darkness was my light and the void a haven – a quiet place where...

It is hard to bring paedophile rings to justice. Thankfully it does happen. Perhaps the most horrific recent case came before the High Court in Edinburgh in June 2007. It involved a mother who stood...