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Healing doesn't happen over a day, but it begins the moment we try not to push away the negative thoughts, rather analyze the past events and take all possible lessons from them.
Healing doesn’t happen over a day, but it begins the moment we try not to push away the negative thoughts, rather analyze the past events and take all possible lessons from them.
Dear fighter,
If you are here reading this post, if you have survived the difficulties life threw at you, you are a fighter.
No, I would not say sorry for what you went through. Yes, I am disgusted and feel pathetic for the ones who put you through this ordeal. The decadence by a few anti-social elements in the society saddens me. But I also know a simple sorry is going to do nothing about it.
I won’t ask you to stay positive, or simply let it go. Trying to bury the past is not the right way to heal.
I would instead ask you to contemplate the events of the past until you are convinced that it was never your fault. I would ask you to accept those incidents as nightmares of your life rather than making efforts to erase them. The truth is the more you try to erase them, the more they will trouble you. It will make you frustrated, and the frustration will manifest into anger or some form of depression.
There might be people around to blame and shame you, but you must know that self-blaming would only be followed by self-harm. I have been in this place once, and the path to healing began only when I stopped the self-blaming.
Healing doesn’t happen over a day, but it begins the moment we try not to push away the negative thoughts, rather analyze the past events and take all possible lessons from them. Everything in moderation is good, likewise, a little dwelling on the past would actually help. So it’s ok to cry, it’s ok to feel low, it’s ok to feel desperate and it’s ok to feel the pain. For it is this pain that will show you your true strength and courage.
I know how it feels to be abused by those who are supposed to protect us. But, I am not a counselor or a therapist. So if none of my words make any sense to you, or even if they make sense but you feel there is nothing you can do about it, then please let someone intervene. Your emotional health gets affected the most. Don’t shy from seeking professional help.
When you have survived hell, you are strong enough to defeat the inner demons too.
With that, I sign-off with lots of love, strength, hope, and a reminder that you have a lot of fight left in you.
A survivor of gender based trauma is affected in ways that go deep, and their worldview can get permanently damaged. It can be really crippling in their day to day life – whether in the personal or public sphere, and sending some comfort their way can help.
We at Women’s Web are collaborating with the Saahas App for Survivors of Gender Violence to reach out to women who need to be heard, and healing, as survivors of gender based violence. Letters to the survivor from our authors will be published on Women’s Web in the coming 10 days, and also on the Saahas website, in a series called “Dear Survivor”.
If you would like to participate, please upload your letter on your Women’s Web dashboard, and if chosen, it will be published.
Image source: shutterstock
When I was little, I had a knack to spin up stories, poems on literally anything, from a butterfly to a fan. With time, the stories started fading. When I became a mother, a plethora read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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