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92be70d Power is confusing for us, perhaps even terrifying, because our relationship with it had an unfortunate beginning. Someone in a position of power over us used and abused us...It seems as if power were something to be wielded, always at someone's expense, usually our own. abuse-survivors abuse-of-authority abuse-of-power abuse-of-trust abusive-parenting misuse-of-power parental-authority survivor-of-abuse child-sexual-abuse-survivor child-abuse survivor healing powerlessness powerless power child-sexual-abuse Maureen Brady
ec52b84 When we are ready to let go of our old controls, we admit that we were powerless over the incest or abuse...We have often thought, 'If only I could have stopped it,' but we could not have stopped it. We let go of the 'if only' now and sit still with our stark powerlessness...In our surrender to powerlessness, we touch ourselves with the gift of truth. abuse-survivors letting-go truth survivor-of-abuse survivors-of-abuse child-sexual-abuse-survivor if-only child-abuse survivor healing abuse-recovery powerlessness powerless child-sexual-abuse incest Maureen Brady
ead270a "Our need to be "greater than" or "less than" has been a defense against toxic shame. A shameful act was committed upon us. The perpetrator walked away, leaving us with the shame. We absorbed the notion that we are somehow defective. To cover for this we constructed a false self, a masked self. And it is this self that is the overachiever or the dunce, the tramp or the puritan, the powermonger or the pathetic loser." ashamed coverup defective defective-humans false-self feeling-bad hidden-feelings hidden-pain hidden-self overachiever power-trip toxic-shame child-sexual-abuse-survivor recovery-from-abuse dunce loser healing-insights survivor puritan healing true-self shame child-sexual-abuse incest Maureen Brady
7240f03 When we first begin to take power more directly, after long having kept our relationship to it underground...it is natural that we experience anxiety, even guilt, at putting ourselves first. These feeling let us know we are taking action; they do not need to stop us. assertiveness child-sexual-abuse-survivor false-guilt empowering healing-insights healing anxiety power guilt survivors Maureen Brady