Do you know what it's like to live with fear?
To be afraid every day of your life, and to know you can't escape from the the source of your fear?

Do you know what it's like to struggle for acceptance, and find only criticism and condemnation instead?

Do you know what it's like to wake in the morning and know that nothing you do today will be right?

Do you know what it's like to wake in the morning and KNOW that today you will be hit.   To know that if today is a "good" day, you'll only get a couple of slaps across the face, and if it's a bad day, you could find a hand around your neck, shutting off your windpipe until you pass out.

Do you know what it's like to hear words such as "you're useless", "you're stupid", "no-one will ever love you", and to hear these words so often you believe them?

Do you know what it's like to feel as if every breath you draw is a waste of oxygen.   To feel as if suicide is the only option, but be too afraid to do it.   Do you know what it feels like to think you are so useless you can't even kill yourself?

Do you know what it is like to reach for help, only to find none, and then find things are actually worse because the one causing your pain now holds another grudge against you?

If you answered no, then you are lucky,
because it means you have never been abused

If you answered yes, then I pray you have had the courage and strength to turn your life around, and find all the beauty and goodness buried deep inside you. Because it IS there, no matter what anyone else tells you. The healing road is long and hard, but it is worth the journey.

If you know of anyone who is being abused, Please, Please do something to help them.   Don't leave them to suffer, that only makes you as guilty as the abuser.   Let the abuser know that what they are doing is wrong, and let the abused know someone cares for them, and thinks they are a worthwhile person.

Written By A Child-Abuse Survivor,
who wishes to remain anonymous