The Pain of Surviving Abuse That Everyone Else Forgot
There’s a specific kind of pain that comes with surviving abuse that everyone else forgot — like your trauma expired in their minds the moment they moved on, but you’re still stuck living inside it. Every. Single. Day.
I’m talking about the kind of survival where you remember every detail — the smell of the room, the weight of the silence, the way your soul left your body to survive. But everyone else? They act like it never happened. Like it was just a bad phase, or worse, a made-up story.
Surviving abuse that everyone else forgot means carrying the truth of what happened when no one else wants to acknowledge it. You’re the one with the memories. You’re the one with the nightmares. You’re the one with the scars that don’t show up on skin. And they get to pretend it didn’t exist.
When Family and Community Erase the Truth
And sometimes it ain’t even strangers forgetting, it’s family.
They crack jokes about the past like it was some sitcom.
They bring up your abuser’s name at gatherings like he was just “troubled.”
They tell you to forgive. To let it go.
To stop “bringing up old shit.”
As if your survival is a burden. As if your pain is inconvenient. As if your truth should stay buried for their comfort.
But let me tell you this right now:
You don’t owe anyone silence.
Not your parents.
Not your siblings.
Not the church.
Not the community.
Not your abuser’s memory.
Finding Power While Surviving Abuse That Everyone Else Forgot
Surviving abuse that everyone else forgot means becoming your own damn witness.
It means validating your own truth when no one else will.
It means rising up and saying: I remember. I will not forget. And I will not shut up.
Because their amnesia doesn’t erase your story.
And the healing? It starts the moment you stop begging people to believe you and start standing in your truth like a damn monument.
This is not about revenge. This is about release.
This is not about dragging anyone through the mud. This is about finally washing the blood off your hands.
This is not about living in the past.
This is about refusing to let the past keep living inside you.
Your Truth Is Enough
So if you’ve been surviving abuse that everyone else forgot, I see you.
You’re not dramatic.
You’re not too much.
You’re not broken.
You’re remembering what others ran from.
And that? That makes you braver than all of them combined.
