Trauma Survivor Quotes

“All emotions, even those that are suppressed and unexpressed, have physical effects. Unexpressed emotions tend to stay in the body like small ticking time bombs—they are illnesses in incubation.”
― Marilyn Van M. Derbur, Miss America By Day: Lessons Learned From Ultimate Betrayals And Unconditional Love

“Trauma isn’t going to win today. Remember how Daphne turned into the laurel tree? This is what you must do too. Form your own roots, feed from the earth that still loves you. Remember how.”
― Nikita Gill, Great Goddesses: Life Lessons from Myths and Monsters

“Amnesia, which is a loss of memory, is a symptom of many different trauma and/or dissociative disorders, including PTSD, Dissociative Fugue, Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified and Dissociative Identity Disorder. Amnesia can affect both implicit and explicit memory.”
― Ruth A. Lanius, The Impact of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease: The Hidden Epidemic

“Gwyn threw her arms around Nesta. 'I heard you might need us.' Nesta was so stunned to see the priestess that she returned the hug.

Mor, a step behind, gave her a concerned nod, and then winnowed away.

Emerie was the one to say to Gwyn, 'I can't believe you left the library.'

Gwyn stroked Nesta's head. 'Some things are more important than fear.' She cleared her throat. 'But please don't remind me too much. I'm so nervous I really might vomit.'

Even Nesta smiled at that.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A ​Court of Silver Flames

“July 15, 1991

Nita: My mother was a paragon of our neighborhood, People always come up to us with hugs, saying "You have the most wonderful mother." l'd think. “Don't you see what's going on in this house?” To this day, if somehow even in jest raises their hand to me, I will do this (raises hands to protect face and cowers) I cringe. Then they look at me like, what's your probem? You don't get that from a great childhood.”
― Sarah E. Olson, Becoming One: A Story of Triumph Over Dissociative Identity Disorder

“you’ve escaped from certain death before, so your odds are probably better than the average person’s.
...
She’d survived before. She’d survive again.”
― Christina Henry, Looking Glass

“I was just thinking that I started off OK," Jo said. "There wasn't anything different or wrong with me when I was born. I wasn't inherently bad or freakish."
That's right, Jo," Lynn said.
"Other people—my mother and father—did things to me that made me feel all wrong about myself," Jo said, another warm wave of new, sure knowledge washing over her.”
― Joan Frances Casey, The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality

“Be a pain transformer,
not a pain transmitter.
This is the only way
the world will heal.”
― John Mark Green

“Healing, like reward, is not gained without effort.”
― Shreve Gould

“Once a toxic thought pattern has been recognized, applying the Word of God comes next. Looking at the thoughts that batter your brain through the eyes of Scripture will lead to hope in a way that therapy alone is found wanting.”
― Julie Busler, Joyful Sorrow: Breaking Through the Darkness of Mental Illness

“Sexual trauma isn't a one time event. It's something we battle for a lifetime. No matter how much I tried to mute troubling memories, I couldn't. Flashbacks occurred without warning. Seeing the predator at social events was a constant reminder. I was a broken mess.”
― Dana Arcuri

“Cassian halted a few feet from the maze of tables along the walkway, smiling to himself at the sight of her: head tipped toward the sun, unbound hair gleaming and rippling around her like liquid gold, her full hips curled upward, basking in the light.

She never stopped appreciating the sunshine. Even five hundred years after leaving that veritable prison she'd called home and the monsters who claimed her as kin, his friend- his sister, honestly- still savoured every moment in the sun. As if the first seventeen years of her life, spent in the darkness of the Hewn City, still lurked around her like Az's shadows.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A ​Court of Silver Flames

“They are too far gone.”
― Sara Ellie MacKenzie

“Je ne sais pas faire autrement, l'Histoire m'a choisie, mastiquée, déchiquetée, recrachée survivante, et plutôt que de la fuir, de me soigner aux sentiments et aux passions intimes, je ne peux vivre sans elle, je la longe comme on suit un cours d'eau par peur de me perdre. J'ai vécu, aimé et travaillé tout près d'elle.”
― Marceline Loridan-Ivens, L'Amour après

“It’s often oppressed trauma survivors who have led the most successful social justice movements in American history, survivors who are commonly moved by anger, resentment, and rage – not forgiveness – toward those who are responsible for this oppression and trauma,”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“Supposed that you are a trauma survivor and member of an opposed group. In that case, you are not only more likely to experience trauma, but you are also more likely to feel pressure from society to forgive your offender(s).”
― Amanda Ann Gregory, You Don't Need to Forgive: Trauma Recovery on Your Own Terms

“It’s that I am the prison. I’m the cell, the bars, the locked door, and the scream no one hears.”
― Jonathan Harnisch, Sex, Drugs, and Schizophrenia

“It’s not that I’m suffering inside a prison. It’s that I am the prison. I’m the cell, the bars, the locked door, and the scream no one hears.”
― Jonathan Harnisch, Sex, Drugs, and Schizophrenia

“I don’t hate the world for no reason. I hate it because it broke me and kept going like nothing happened.”
― Jonathan Harnisch, Sex, Drugs, and Schizophrenia