Abused Child Quotes

“...repeated trauma in childhood forms and deforms the personality. The child trapped in an abusive environment is faced with formidable tasks of adaptation. She must find a way to preserve a sense of trust in people who are untrustworthy, safety in a situation that is unsafe, control in a situation that is terrifyingly unpredictable, power in a situation of helplessness. Unable to care for or protect herself, she must compensate for the failures of adult care and protection with the only means at her disposal, an immature system of psychological defenses.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“The fear of abandonment forced me to comply as a child, but I’m not forced to comply anymore. The key people in my life did reject me for telling the truth about my abuse, but I’m not alone. Even if the consequence for telling the truth is rejection from everyone I know, that’s not the same death threat that it was when I was a child. I’m a self-sufficient adult and abandonment no longer means the end of my life.”
― Christina Enevoldsen, The Rescued Soul: The Writing Journey for the Healing of Incest and Family Betrayal

“In this climate of profoundly disrupted relationships the child faces a formidable developmental task. She must find a way to form primary attachments to caretakers who are either dangerous or, from her perspective, negligent. She must find a way to develop a sense of basic trust and safely with caretakers who are untrustworthy and unsafe. She must develop a sense of self in relation to others who are helpless, uncaring or cruel. She must develop a capacity for bodily self-regulation in an environinent in which her body is at the disposal of others' needs as well as a capacity for self-soothing in an environment without solace. She must develop the capacity for initiative in an environment which demands that she bring her will into complete conformity with that of her abuser. And ultimately, she must develop a capacity for intimacy out of an environment where all intimate relationships are corrupt, and an identity out of an environment which defines her as a whore and a slave.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“Complexly traumatized children need to be helped to engage their attention in pursuits that do not remind them of trauma-related triggers and that give them a sense of pleasure and mastery. Safety, predictability, and "fun" are essential for the establishment of the capacity to observe what is going on, put it into a larger context, and initiate physiological and motoric self-regulation.”
― Sarah Benamer, Trauma and Attachment

“Dissociative Identity Disorder is the most extreme form of PTSD and is the result of the child's desperate attempt to survive and adapt to an overwhelmingly confusing and cruel world.”
― Lynette S. Danylchuk

“Usually we're on the same page. Other times I'm in a whole other book"

~ Arika Wolly”
― Arika Wolly, Fractured

“When you're little you believe whatever your mother tells you, so I assumed it must be true, that I must be inferior to the others in some way.”
― Joe Peters, Cry Silent Tears: The Horrific True Story of the Mute Little Boy in the Cellar

“I guess to their wide, innocent eyes it all seemed like normal family life because they had never known any different. In fact, I was the only one who had lived with anyone else, the only one that realized that life didn't have to be this terrifying and this painful all the time”
― Joe Peters, Cry Silent Tears: The Horrific True Story of the Mute Little Boy in the Cellar

“Yes, we forgive you, Daddy!' we chorus. We have to forgive him, we've got to see him every day, life’s going to be even more uncomfortable if we don’t forgive him; it’s a matter of survival. We just want everything to be all right, or seem to be all right.”
― Viv Albertine, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys

“A short, quick gasp escapes her trembling lips, spots dancing in her vision. Hunching until she is small, silent the scream remains, as blackness and pain hold her prisoner against her father’s rage”
― Michelle Connor, Hers To Save Complete Series

“So is that a yes,' the sheriff asked.
Daniel held his breath. The lawsuit, the cost of bail, these were enough to push Clyde into the zone. The world stopped on Rita's next breath. A single assertion could end this mess--protective custody; the sheriff would shield Daniel from Clyde's wrath.
'No,' Rita said in a steady strong voice. 'My husband does not abuse us.'
The lie kicked Daniel as hard as Clyde's boot.”
― Edward Lazellari, Awakenings