Secrets are sometimes needed to protect the innocent. But held on for too long, they can block us from where we want to go.
I recently shared the truth of my trauma with my youngest daughter (not the details, just the fact of it). Keeping this secret was a major block in my life. It was a block to having an honest and transparent relationship with her.
I have kept my secret for a long time. I have felt the pressure to be silent from the beginning due to the stigma and weight of this topic. No one wants to hear about it. Especially when they see you as strong, as friends did, and surely as a child does. It colors their view of you, making you somehow damaged. I don’t want to be seen as damaged. No one does. Yet if I’m seen as damaged so are 1 in 6 women as that is the statistic for rape.1
To be clear, we are not damaged.
We have been harmed.
But when you have a reputation as someone who is strong, no one wants to hear how a strong woman was compromised.
…
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to In Conscious Motion to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.