Recovering from Abuse

If you’ve been the victim of abuse, give yourself the chance to recover. Depending on the severity of it, it can go from being a short to a long process. However, watch out for unhealthy coping mechanisms; you won’t recover if you resign yourself to your misery and leave it to the passing of time to take care of it all - you have to be proactive in your healing process.

Were you surrounded by vicious people for too long? Go spend more time with saner ones. Were you kept from tending to your obligations? Catch up on them or at least on the ones that are still relevant. Were you kept from the hobbies that bring you joy and happiness? Make some room for them and pick them up once again. Were you disregarded in more ways? Don’t wait for others to give you the attention that you can give yourself! If you’re fortunate enough to have people that genuinely love you and that will gladly help you with this, fantastic! But don’t leave it all to them. Don’t turn into an abuser yourself.

Then how about your aspirations? Abuse might have been a huge setback (and incredibly discouraging), but once you’ve recovered enough, you can return to being your ambitious self. Don’t give up and don’t beat yourself up over the waste that abuse caused. Make a promise to yourself to not let the same happen again if you can help it and, if possible, to make the rest of your life the best of your life!

See also: What is abuse?