Healing isn't as easy as putting a plaster on the wound
As an abuse survivor, I know that we need to be patient with ourselves in our healing process and learn how to self-soothe and care for ourselves. In that process, we may need to make very difficult life decisions that involve moving on from certain people in our lives who wish to hurt us. I guess that’s when we become aware that we are indeed initiating self-care and putting ourselves first rather than following the idealised views of others in society. What saddens me, is the fact that some people are unable to show the same patience with an abuse survivor and instead view them as selfish or stuck in the past. Some of those people are unable to see that an abuse survivor may need to distance themselves from certain places or people in order to heal and become stronger. Instead they tell a survivor that they should make the effort to see people who hurt them and move on from their past. But how can an abuse survivor move on from their past when certain people are insensitive or want