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Sexual Assault I Never Believed This Was Sexual Abuse...

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MoriMermaid

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There's something that I've been keeping inside from people simply because it's been hard to explain. I feel that today is the day that this has to be let go like a dove released into the air.

I'm a survivor of sexual abuse. I met N. on another social media site back in October 2014. I had been abused emotionally and verbally previously, by men and boys. I knew there were red flags when I look back at the situation; however, I can't be blamed for no knowing them or knowing what to do in a situation like this nor can I blame myself, although I did for a long time. N. was okay at first -- kind, gentle, all of those things that someone would want. About two months in, he started with his "dreams" -- I called them fantasies, and he would have screamed at me had he been here in front of me that day. I could feel the tone of those typed words on that white screen. Don't ask me how I know. That's the kind of guy he was. The dreams consisted of everything that involved sex and what he wanted to do to me from wanting to see my breasts on Skype to laying down in a field while it was raining while wearing white t-shirts and letting whatever happened happen. Some people might call it sexting, but to someone who was abused previously, this experience was painful. I learned how to freeze, how to dissociate, how to reset and forget. He would continue even though I said no, and I eventually isolated from him and everyone else because as a child I had been told that the only way to get help was to help myself or that everything was fine. N. had Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and that brought with it challenges. His behavior changed daily. To me, it was like turning a light switch on and off and not knowing what to expect. The only thing I did know is that there would been some sexual moment. This may have had something to do with him seeing so many women behind his wife's back.

I remember the day N. left like it was yesterday. We were talking and then he told me that he had something to show me. I froze. My mind raced. I knew what was going to happen. In that moment, there was a decision I made without thinking. I asked him if he loved himself. This threw him off, and he said no, that he had very low self-esteem. Asking him that question prevented me from getting hurt even further. After this moment of strength, he basically blew up at me and told me that I was crazy and that I needed to see a shrink then he blocked me. In July, he came back wanted to be friends and claimed that he forgot everything. I told him that I wasn't available anymore and blocked him quickly. I feel so sorry for his wife and hope she got out. I hope he got the help he needed. I hope that all of the other women whose lives he touched got through without too much damage.

People used to tell me that because I wasn't touched physically it wasn't abuse. In November of last year, I was told that I experienced sexual abuse. I'm here to say I'm a sexual abuse survivor. If no one believes me, that's okay. I know it happened. I live with the scars and trauma every day. I heal, I suffer, I climb back to my feet to go through another day. For a while, he changed the way I saw me and the world in general; however, things are slowly changing. From this experience, I learned that I'm both asexual and aromantic and have no interest in anything but deep connections without sex or romance. I forgave him and forgave myself and started to heal. I make it a priority of mine to make sure survivors (especially the ones like me) are heard and that they're believed. That's all a person needs to start -- someone to believe and to believe in them.
 
@Zoogal October to February. Yes. All of it was online. Yes. I was deeply affected by this. Yes. I remember details of the event like it was yesterday.
 
So you met a married guy on a social media site and started an Internet "relationship" with him where he then begins to send you/Skype you messages about how he wants to have sex with you? You never met in person? Did you live far away from each other?
I'm sorry I am trying to get a picture of this and don't quite understand. I am not clear as to if you two hooked up or it was all done on the Internet. And, it all occurred between the months of October to February? 4 months?
 
@Rumors So because I didn't met in person and he didn't touch me, this isn't valid? My trauma background is with boys who bullied me emotionally and verbally for over eight years. There was no "hookup." He never told me he was married. All done on the Net, but I guess because I was a consenting adult this wasn't abuse. Do you want a picture? Try to imagine being bullied daily, day in and day out by the other sex. Everything. Imagine a barrage of names, of teases and taunts. Just imagine those hours. Imagine yourself as a little 8-year-old girl and go back there. Go back to a place where teachers saw and didn't listen, where people minimized your experience, to where the only thing that you associated with boys was those names, those actions, that emotional abuse and violence. Now, I want you to see where you are when you're 28 and someone comes to you and starts putting you in their fantasies and dreams and telling you in detail what they want sexually. Do you have a picture yet? How would that feel to you?

@digger I was an adult when this happened. Is it then also not trauma if as a child I was told that I was to deal with everything myself and that I made most of everything that I had, including my chronic pain more painful than it really was or that it didn't exist at all, so that as an adult telling anyone made me feel like I would get those same answers and confusion?
 
@Rumors So because I didn't met in person and he didn't touch me, this isn't va...
I'm having a hard time with this. The bullying is bad yes, but an adult getting online they can walk away from and block? I don't know if I can call that abuse. Bad decision yes. Feeling guilty? Maybe. But not abuse.
Not in my opinion anyway.

Im sorry if that seems harsh. Is there something you're not telling us?
 
@Zoogal It's okay. I know I didn't belong here, either. Forget I even said since I'm the guilty party here. That it was all my fault that he didn't listen to me. You don't understand, and people never will.
 
Sorry an adult chosing to engage with someone online, and that behaviour becoming sexual is not in an of itself abusive. Did you ask him not to speak to you in that way, that you were uncomfortable with sexualised content or his fantasy life. If not, how could he possibly know and why would he stop it?

Your experience as a child was horrible I'm sure but in no way makes this experience sexual abuse.
 
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