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LILY Online Magazine
OVERCOMING ABUSE AN EMPOWERED AND BEAUTIFUL SURVIVOR’S JOURNEY TO EMOTIONAL FREEDOM WRITER Helen Johnson www.facebook.com/EmpoweredAndBeautiful
BREAKING MY SILENCE ABOUT THE ABUSE I ENDURED WAS EXTREMELY LIBERATING. TO ACTUALLY PUT WHAT WAS DONE TO ME INTO WORDS WAS SO EMPOWERING. I had told my close friends already, but typing my story of survival up and sharing it with world on the Empowered and Beautiful site was a completely different experience to telling those who I already knew loved me and supported me.
poured in. I was overwhelmed with emotion. People were thanking me for sharing my story. So many people came forward to embrace me and many times I heard the words “Me too.”
Removing my shame completely and stepping forward to share my story publicly was me finally saying that the abuse was NEVER my fault and it does not define me as a person, nor does it dictate my present nor my future. The shame NEVER belonged to me. I choose to live for me now. I wasted too much of my time trying to please someone who could never be pleased. It was finally time to find myself important and recognise that it was never my job to try to fix anyone else.
I had no idea how common abuse was when I first began working with Empowered and Beautiful (an online support network of more than 42,000 members founded by survivor Joi Partain). I had not realised the magnitude of the problem, until I read countless messages from other survivors who told their own stories. With each share (on the EBA Facebook page) there was a wave of healing. My heart swelled with pride for those who came forward to break their silence and heal with my fellow survivors and I.
There was something almost magical about the healing I experienced as a massive flood of support
Recognising Abuse
One of the first steps for me to stop blaming