Trauma Survivors Quotes

“If your body is screaming in pain, whether the pain is muscular contractions, anxiety, depression, asthma or arthritis, a first step in releasing the pain may be making the connection between your body pain and the cause. “Beliefs are physical. A thought held long enough and repeated enough becomes a belief. The belief then becomes biology.”
― Marilyn Van M. Derbur, Miss America By Day: Lessons Learned From Ultimate Betrayals And Unconditional Love

“The damage and invisible scars of emotional abuse are very difficult to heal, because memories are imprinted on our minds and hearts and it takes time to be restored. Imprints of past traumas do not mean a person cannot change their future beliefs and behaviors. as people, we do not easily forget. However, as we heal, grieve, and let go, we become clear-minded and focused to live restore and emotionally healthy.”
― Dee Brown, Breaking Passive-Aggressive Cycles

“I have met many, many severely distressed people whose daily lives are filled with the agony of both remembered and unremembered trauma, who try so hard to heal and yet who are constantly being pushed down both by their symptoms and the oppressive circumstances of post traumatic life around them.”
― Carolyn Spring

“She had taken many more punches to both body and soul than anyone should ever have to endure. But she had been able to rebel every time.”
― Steig Larson, The Girl Who Played with Fire

“Trauma destroys the fabric of time. In normal time you move from one moment to the next, sunrise to sunset, birth to death. After trauma, you may move in circles, find yourself being sucked backwards into an eddy or bouncing like a rubber ball from now to then to back again. ... In the traumatic universe the basic laws of matter are suspended: ceiling fans can be helicopters, car exhaust can be mustard gas.”
― David J. Morris, The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

“Like revenge, the fantasy of forgiveness often becomes a cruel torture, because it remains out of reach for most ordinary human beings. Folk wisdom recognizes that to forgive is divine. And even divine forgiveness, in most religious systems, is not unconditional. True forgiveness cannot be granted until the perpetrator has sought and earned it through confession, repentance, and restitution.”
― Judith Lewis Herman

“Emotional abuse is designed to undermine another's sense of self.
It is deliberate humiliation, with the intent to seize control of how others feel about themselves.”
― Lorraine Nilon, Breaking Free From the Chains of Silence: A respectful exploration into the ramifications of Paedophilic abuse

“TRAUMA STEALS YOUR VOICE

People get so tired of asking you what's wrong and you've run out of nothings to tell them.

You've tried and they've tried, but the words just turn to ashes every time they try to leave your mouth.

They start as fire in the pit of your stomach, but come out in a puff of smoke.

You are not you anymore.

And you don't know how to fix this.

The worst part is...you don't even know how to try.”
― nikitta gill

“We wage battle with our traumas each day, individually and, to a broader extent, collectively. Too often we are dragged from our sleep by inner skirmishes that invade and dominate our emotions, rile the inner snipers, and hold our bodies hostage to our histories. Often we are ambushed by an unseen enemy from within and for the untrained, unconditioned warrior, there is no safety. We hide, isolate, avoid known landmines, and shield ourselves with alcohol, other drugs, spending, raging, sex, gambling, risk taking. At least, for a moment, the terror dissolves and we can attach ourselves to a sense of safety. Even in the full knowledge that it's all temporary.”
― Louise Sutherland-Hoyt

“Having to pretend whole parts of your life didn't happen, just to get through the day, is something nobody ever really talks about.”
― Mr. Joshua Shaw, I Took a Plane to Die in Denver

“Trauma is a thief. It steals our childhoods, years of our adult lives, or even
our entire lifetimes. It takes away our ability to feel connected to others, to
feel like we belong in the world, and to receive and extend love. It prevents
us from growing and thriving. It steals our relationships, work, physical
health, families, communities, spirituality, hobbies, passions, and identity.
And to add insult to injury, trauma then demands that we grieve these losses
in order to heal from them, which can feel overwhelming.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Trauma is a thief. It steals our childhoods, years of our adult lives, or even our entire lifetimes. It takes away our ability to feel connected to others, to feel like we belong in the world, and to receive and extend love. It prevents us from growing and thriving. It steals our relationships, work, physical health, families, communities, spirituality, hobbies, passions, and identity. And to add insult to injury, trauma then demands that we grieve these losses in order to heal from them, which can feel overwhelming.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“It’s going to be hard, I’ll tell you that from the start. However hard you think it’s going to be, I promise you it’ll be worse. And you’re going to think you have to do it alone – but you don’t, and you can’t. People will want to help you. People will want to be there when you’re ready for them. You might not find them right away, but you’ll find them.

Wherever you are on that path, wherever you’re headed, just remember that you won’t be walking it forever. And those first steps – first loves, first heartaches, first mistakes, whatever – they don’t have to define all the years of your life. A day will come when you can let it go. You might not think so now, but that day will come. Doesn’t mean you don’t still carry a part of it with you, but you’re going to wake up one day and realize it’s lighter. That day will come, whatever you’re carrying.”
― Mia_ugly, Slow Show

“But I’ve learned hope is a traitor. The shouts of doubt always come back louder, their return as certain as the tides. Disillusionment is a wave that never misses its mark.”
― Alma Brooke, Four of a Kind

“Forgiveness is not a method to bypass or avoid the long and at times brutal trauma recovery process.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Many trauma survivors anxiously wait for their offender(s) to die and aren’t bothered by their death when it occurs, or they feel relieved when their offender(s) are finally gone.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“It’s often oppressed trauma survivors who have led the most successful social justice movements in American history, survivors who are commonly moved by anger, resentment, and rage – not forgiveness – toward those who are responsible for this oppression and trauma,”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“We cannot separate forgiveness and social inequality in trauma recovery as forgiveness, trauma, and recovery always occur in a social and political context – one that is fraught with inequality.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Forgiveness has been and will continue to be used as a weapon against oppressed trauma survivors in order to maintain social inequalities, which cause further trauma.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Forgiveness should be considered an elective option – not a requirement – in trauma recovery.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“There is a popular misconception in many societies that offenders who are genetically related to you are entitled to forgiveness. This makes little sense.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Forgiveness is not a panacea. It does not make trauma disappear, nor does it heal all emotional wounds.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Comparing your traumatic experience with another’s doesn’t make sense; if trauma were a competition, every survivor would be a winner.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Anger is vital in trauma recovery. It starts by shielding us from those frightening, overwhelming, and devastating emotions that are waiting for us behind that door. We can hold onto that shield until we feel safe enough to open the door and cross the threshold; then, anger turns from a shield to a key.”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Ｔｈｅ ｃｈｅａｐｅｓｔ ｄａｙ ｔｏ ｂｕｙ ”
― Quotable Quotes Press, Good Luck Finding Better Co-workers Than Us. p/s: We'll Miss You.: Blank Lined Journal Notebook

“So many of us suffer in silence, without any support, with our trauma wounds and shame for company.
You are NOT alone”
― Wen Peetes, Inner Child Healing: Heal Your Wounds. Train Your Mind. Create A New You.

“Healing isn't becoming someone new, it's reclaiming the parts of you that were buried under survival.”
― Marbella barajas

“The essence of self-love is that of complete acceptance of your total experience, especially those aspects that feel challenging. Sure, it’s easy to embrace what is beautiful and well behaved, but far more difficult even to tolerate—let alone love—the parts that are messy and painful. Yet, it’s the tarnished, unruly parts that need your acceptance the most in order to change.”
― Dina Saalisi, Transcending Sexual Trauma: Self-Awareness Tools and Nature-Based Practices to Cultivate Inner Healing

“Even the nurses in the hospital had told me now I had nothing to fear. 'The worst is over for you,' they had said.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“The most powerful and gifted teachers I have are the survivors who gave me a window into the inner experience of trauma, taught me what always to say and what never to say, and helped to validate or disprove what the experts and theorists were claiming. It has been a privilege to learn with them and from them.”
― Janina Fisher, Transforming The Living Legacy of Trauma: A Workbook for Survivors and Therapists