Society often assumes that good support will be available to childhood abuse survivors if they reach out for help & “talk to someone”. You assume this because you know it’s what we deserve, at the very basic level. But I’m here to tell you tonight that we do NOT get this support.

Most of us (especially women) just get a diagnosis of BPD/EUPD, which opens us up to stigma and abuse from the services who are supposed to help us. We are told constantly ON A LOOP that our behaviour needs to change and that we need to build resilience and “do better” at coping.

We are shamed into thinking that we’re not coping with the aftermath of abuse in the same way other survivors do, and that this is our own fault. We are silenced by the very people who Society assumes will help give us our voice back. We are abused and gaslighted all over again.

Hardly any of us get offered trauma therapy, and those who do are only offered time limited therapy. A therapy so short in time, that survivors often have to bend over backwards to “prove” that we are ready for it.

Voluntary services are often recommended to abuse survivors as suitable alternatives to NHS MH services, but pretty much all of them are closed to new referrals for therapy because their waiting lists are huge. There are even waiting lists to get on to the actual waiting list.