When I was experiencing my abuse I struggled with wanting to be rescued and what was I doing wrong. As many of you have stated, I was silent - so how could the rescue even take place?

The phantasy of a rescue I held onto for a while in therapy but soon let go of it. All the abuse had happened and nothing was going to change that. My new favorite saying is "It is what it is.". It is the past, and now it will never happen again because I will get out of the situation as fast as my feet will carry me.

The forgiveness thing, I can't get my thoughts through this one. I absolutely can not, at this time, forgive the people who abused me. They were cruel manipulative people. I don't feel I need to forgive myself because I don't believe at the time I knew what was happening or how to deal with it. Now I have radar to recognize mal treatment and if it ever happens again, I understand the piece about forgiving myself for letting it happen again.

Just my two cents.