I appreciate you taking what happened seriously. I agree that people can exploit trust and authority, though I don’t want to generalize about all religious people. I’m not looking to confront or hurt anyone; I mainly wanted to share my experience and hear how others make sense of it.

I know from my own experience that the baggage feels much lighter when you can finally come to a place where you know that, even though it shapes your life and perspective, as all our experiences do, it doesn’t define you.

That’s true. Thank you for sharing your experience. I know many people have experienced sexual abuse but are afraid or threatened into staying silent.

Do you mean that my experience might make me distrust people, stay on alert, or feel unsafe around sex? I know those feelings are connected to my trauma, and I’m trying to focus on what I can change now rather than what happened in the past. What did you mean by ‘the opposite’?

Thank you ,I really appreciated your comment. I wish more people could share their experiences so there could be greater awareness of how serious and widespread abuse is. Many people have been victimized but stay silent because they’re threatened or afraid to speak out.

I don’t personally know anyone I can trust.

It would probably make our life hell