Hello All

[Poppies]

Hello, I'm Poppies, I'm 22 and new here. I'm not entirely sure where to start, save to say that I only became aware of the possibility that I am a "survivor" a few days ago, at least fifteen years after the incident I "survived". Given that, I'm not sure whether I have any entitlement to the term "victim", only that my attempts to process this new information (or old information in a new context, if you prefer) have proved extraordinarily anxiety inducing and confusing. I'm very nervous even being here, because I absolutely don't want anyone else in my family to find out about any of this. Anyway, I look forward to meeting all of you, and will at some point get around to explaining why I'm here.

[CapturedDove]

Hi! I'm new here also!

[Poppies]

Hello

[MeBeMary]

Hi Poppies.

Don't feel like you are not entitled to be here. Everyone who is here is entitled to be here and is entitled to heal. I personally denied my abuse for over 30 years and I do understand the awkwardness in wondering if you belong, but trust me, we do. Everyone has different stories here, but we are all connected by a common thread. We were hurt by somebody very badly and we want to heal. You will find a group of kind and supportive members here and they do really care.

Mary

[lucyinthesky]

Welcome!!

[angelic]

Hi Poppies,

welcome to After Silence, my name is Paula, and I am one of the newbie support team here, I hope you are finding your way around the board okay, if you need any help with any aspect of it, please let me know and I will do my best to help

take care, Paula

[Poppies]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone Mary, I appreciated your response; it's good to know there are allies here.

[moonpeye]

hi I didn't feel like I belonged here for awhile either, but you will find others with similar stories to yours if you open up just a little here and there at your own pace there are so many people here from all around the world I wouldn't worry about anyone finding out your here unless they hack your computer or something lol, but I felt that way at first too. Well im relatively new too and I am 23, my abuse was 8yrs ago so I just wanted to say hi and welcome and you can pm me if you ever need to talk

Nice to meet you poppies!

[moonpeye]

.

Edited February 15, 2015 by moonpeye

[Anya27]

Hello ! Nice to meet u ....u will find a lot of support here for sure !