In my childhood, I was sexually abused and harassed, and this made me live a chaotic childhood due to constant fear and tension. Of course, every time this happened, I never defended myself, nor did I even scream or cry. To this day, I have never cried about it because I was only blaming and judging myself: 'How did you let him do it?' 'Why didn't you defend yourself?' 'This is your fault!' I lived my whole life judging myself for this. My mental health was destroyed at that time, and I was just a child.
The first time this happened to me, I was only 5 years old. I don't remember the details, but I remember it happened. Of course, like any normal child, I went and told my mom, but instead of mom understanding me or even making me feel that it wasn't my fault and that I was little, no—mom started crying and then started blaming me! She started saying, 'You should have defended yourself more, you should have screamed.' Of course, as a child, I was shocked (I was scared mom would tell dad).
And after this situation, I lived in tension and fear—I'm not exaggerating when I say half of my childhood I was afraid of my dad and my brother, to the extent that I was afraid to be in the same room with them alone. Of course, this thing didn't stop even after I told my mom; on the contrary, the matter escalated, and it was from several people (not at the same time). They would ask me to do disgusting things (to touch their bodies, kiss them, and have them touch me), and of course, I don't know why I didn't refuse, why I didn't say 'No, this can't happen.' Then, at the age of eight, I was raped three times during the same period. In each of those times, I didn't defend myself, even though I knew this was wrong.
No, I didn't move; I just accepted the situation (he would buy me candy or chips afterwards). I didn't understand why I didn't defend myself; I was just scared and tense. And after that, for a very, very long time—let's say most of my childhood—I lived with anxiety, tension, depression, and teenage angst. Of course, I didn't tell anyone, I didn't vent to anyone, I just kept it bottled up inside my heart.
I couldn't process or even believe that I went through this without defending myself. The problem was that it happened to me multiple times. Not once did I defend myself; I was scared people would find out, every day I was scared my family would find out. And of course, at the age of nine, by coincidence, I came across pornography, and I started watching it, and I knew this was the same thing that happened to me, and I even started thinking that I must have enjoyed it every time, which is why I didn't defend myself.
I started judging myself and drowning in bad habits. And after a while, I bottled the issue up deep inside me. I stopped reminding myself of it, and slowly I forgot until, by coincidence, I started reading stories of people who went through these things, and I started seeing that all of them had one thing in common: which is that they hate their abusers. But I don't hate them, and I never thought of hating them. All my life I've been judging myself. And then slowly, I realized that I never even shed a single tear over this matter, to the extent that when I cry and remember it, I want to cry, but suddenly the tears dry up. Days come when I feel depressed and just want to sleep, days come when I feel a lump in my throat, but I can't cry. And slowly, I resorted to Reddit. I was just talking to people, but not once did I feel anyone understood me, not even after they said they went through something similar.
And the worst thing is that every time I watch porn, I don't watch it because I'm lustful or have a desire; I just want to feel something, but fundamentally I don't feel anything—no desire, no arousal, I have no attraction toward boys, nor can I even feel attracted. Everything I try to fix, my life gets ruined. Every time I try to develop myself, I find myself tense, scared, and unable to process things. All my life, I depended on the idea of imagining another life far away—meaning that this isn't even my life, and that none of this ever happened. Every day I hope I die. Every day of my childhood, I saw myself as foul, vile, and worthless, not deserving of this life that God gave me. I couldn't cope with this reality, and to this day, I cannot feel any emotion toward the matter except self-blame and judging it. I can't comprehend that I am a victim; I just can't.
I always hear those words and I'm tired of it. It's not your fault, you're not the reason, but I don't think so. All I want is to stop feeling like something is holding me back. This affected me physically My relationship with my family is great and my friends are amazing, but I can't talk to them about it. My circumstances do not allow me to see a psychiatrist or therapist.
Thank you to anyone who read this