How I Make Money for Therapy by Telling My Trauma stories

At least I can use my bad experiences to pay for therapy.

Image created by author with MidJourney

Did you ever regret telling a secret to someone? I did when I was a kid. Not only once but multiple times, I shared very intimate happenings and thoughts with other kids I thought they were friends with. They laughed at me or disclosed my secrets to others, making me feel really stupid and vulnerable.

I swore I would never say anything to anyone ever again.

But I did. I remember about it just this week; that’s how deep I pushed this memory down. I told a boy only a couple of years older than me who constantly bullied me as a preteen that my uncle repeatedly molested me. Why on Earth would I say something like this to someone who already made me feel vulnerable, you’d wonder. Well, I didn’t know at that time; I just said it and then ruminated for days if he would tell his parents or use this information against me, further bullying me. Now, I know. I told him, hoping he would feel pity for me because I couldn’t have said it to the adults in my family and not face the consequences.

The rumination and the anxiety of sharing such big secrets with people I couldn’t trust made me very wary of whom I’d confide in as an adult.