Looking for emotional abuse survivor stories

September 23, 2018 6:28 AM

I am looking for blogs, collections of short stories and novels either fiction, or nonfiction that entail how one has survived and tell the tale of life after emotional and psychological abuse.

I have read endless Buzzfeed Lists and Psychology Today articles, and ideally would like to find something with more substance that reads less like a therapists notes and more like a memoir.

A little background: I grew up in an abusive home where I experienced nearly all forms of abuse. Not surprisingly, I have repeatedly found myself in abusive relationships as an adult. Most have been emotionally and psychologically abusive, though my ex-husband did hit me once or twice. My last relationship, was an on again and off again relationship lasting more than a year that recently ended. Upon reflection, I have come to realize it too was abusive as I can pinpoint very specific and repeated examples of gaslighting and intimidation that at the time seemed innocuous.

Thank you in advance.

posted by Sequined Ballet Flats to Human Relations (9 answers total)

I often recommend the following blogs written by survivors of abusive relationships (which included emotional abuse): Chump Lady, Baggage Reclaim, and Narcissists Suck. I also recommend "Verbal Abuse: Survivors Speak Out on Relationship and Recovery" by Patricia Evans, although it may not be quite what you are looking for. It's a collection of survivor stories with commentary by the author.
posted by jazzbaby at 10:31 AM on September 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

To clarify -- are you only looking for biographies/stories/personal stories, or are you interested in nonfiction books that themselves address survival and recovery after emotional/psychological abuse, but aren't necessarily anecdotal?
posted by WCityMike at 11:17 AM on September 23, 2018

Issendai's Sick Systems: How to Keep Someone With You Forever post could be a place to start.

The MeFi Wiki ThereIsHelp page includes further reading for survivors of emotional abuse.
posted by Little Dawn at 12:00 PM on September 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Big Strong Yes podcast is two survivors of abuse talking through three books and processing their stories. It helped me a lot.
posted by Dwardles at 12:40 PM on September 23, 2018

No response, yet, so, in case they are helpful:

• Body Keeps the Score - Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
• Complex PTSD - From Surviving to Thriving - A Guide and Map for Recovering from Childhood Trauma
• Daring Greatly - How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
• Gifts of Imperfection - Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
• Healing from Trauma - Survivor's Guide to Understanding Your Symptoms and Reclaiming Your Life
• How Can I Forgive You - Courage to Forgive, Freedom Not To
• Lost Childhoods - Plight Of The Parentified Child
• Radical Acceptance
• Rising Strong - How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
• Sunflower - On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
• There is Nothing Wrong With You
• Triumph of the Heart - Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World
• When Anger Scares You

Also, the audiobooks of Radical Acceptance and The Power of Vulnerability.
posted by WCityMike at 2:13 PM on September 23, 2018 [4 favorites]

Attack of the Sugar Monster is written by a woman named Heidi who survived an abusive childhood and is still working through stuff from her past while also doing a great job creating a totally new life in her present.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 12:29 AM on September 24, 2018

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!

I came back to respond to WCityMike, and say that I am looking for survivor narratives, and see that there is a lot to pick through. I am very grateful to all who have responded.

I am learning that there is strength in taking back ones power and that it can be done. There is also beauty in ones cracks, and they need not define us.
posted by Sequined Ballet Flats at 3:12 PM on September 24, 2018

If you're looking for survivor narratives, Sunflower is likely the one you'd want to look into. I do think all of them are great resources, though.
posted by WCityMike at 2:53 PM on September 27, 2018

Little Dawn...that link to Sick Systems. Everyone please read that!
posted by LansLeFleur at 7:59 PM on October 1, 2018