what made you get help?

[elliotsuitcase]

To those of you who were abused, when and why did you decide to seek counseling? If there was a signifigant delay between the abuse and the therapy, why was there a delay and what made you start therapy? How has it helped you, what were the positive and negative aspects and results of the therapy?

 

If you're comfortable discussing it, please tell me about one-on-one counseling, group therapy, any other forms, any treatments you received, what the therapy consisted of. I want to know what made you decide to heal, how you healed, what helped you heal, how your family or partner or friends helped, and what about you or about your life has changed as a result.

 

And to those of you who may have not sought help, or healed without assistance, could you discuss your decisions and the results also?

[renaissancewoman101]

My ex best friend was very emotionally abusive to me for the 13 years that I knew him. I just dumped his friendship about a month ago, with the help of people from here and one or two good friends. I decided to get into therapy recently because of my anxiety (also caused by him) and some depression issues.

 

I am not sure how this is all going to affect me. I just started on the path to somewhat trying to heal myself. Although tonight I had an emotional setback with my failed date.

[MacGyverRI]

To those of you who were abused, when and why did you decide to seek counseling?

 

Unfortunately, most abused people don't really know they are abused until a teacher or someone else points it out to them. Growing up w/ an abusive parent/s usually seems normal until they are in school and find other kids parents don't do what their parents do.

 

When in doubt, always ask a teacher or guidance counselor.

[nottoogreen]

Hi elliotsuitcase,

 

Welcome to eNotAlone!

 

When my 2nd wife went after me with a broken beer bottle, and I came close to killing her in self defense, I decided to get out.

 

I have been exposed to a bit of psychiatry by way of my 1st wife's mental illness and read a lot. Never been in therapy for myself.

 

These articles helped me a lot to heal: link removed, be sure to read the article on Love and the Stockholm syndrome linked at the end.

[Aurian]

My abuser convinced me that I was mentally unstable so I went to counselling. Ironically, it was the counselling that helped me become strong enough to recognize what he was doing to me and leave.

 

I had one-on-one counselling over a period of a few months. I went to try improve myself so I would be "good enough" for the abuser. My counselor tried to tell me that the abuser was behaving badly, but I wouldn't listen. He knew not to push me, because I would have stopped going if he did.

 

So he worked on improving my self-esteem, my emotions, and my confidence. Since I tended to be rather clingy, we did sessions once every two weeks, while he gave me homework and books to read.

 

Eventually I realized that I didn't deserve to be called piece of , lazy, selfish, , etc and ended my marriage.