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Caterina's Story
Hello, My name is Caterina! Please take a couple of minutes to read this.
A few years ago I was Sexually Assaulted, I was in huge denial for a long time, I didn’t know where all my pain was coming from and I didn’t speak with anyone about it. Thankfully through therapy, I was able to understand what had happened to me, which helped to push me to confront it and go through the pain. I learned that the more I ignored it, the more I pushed it aside like it never happened, the more pain I felt internally. So I had to go through that pain, I had to stop ignoring it. I’m not going to sit here and lie saying that it was easy, it wasn’t. I never experienced such a great amount of suffering, I honestly thought I could not survive it, but I did.
You guys are probably asking what is the point of this post, I’m starting to live again and I really want to thank Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) for the help provided, this charity is amazing and they truly care about survivors.
One of the hardest feeling was the loneliness, when I finally opened up with the trusted people around me I still felt so alone in my pain, like nobody could understand it. ERCC helped me to feel less lonely, to understand that I am not alone and that there is community there for me.
I also attended some group sessions and they truly helped me feeling more comfortable with myself and owning my experience, they gave me their time and attention to allow me to open up more and feel confident again in myself. Another terrible feeling after being SA is the guilt and shame, I felt so dirty that I had a period where I would keep washing my body, my face, my hands trying to get the shame and the “dirt” out of my body.
Society doesn’t help, there is so much victim blaming and that’s why we really need to value charities like this one. As a thank you I decided to create this fundraiser‼️ Finally a message to any survivors out there: IT’S NEVER YOUR FAULT, you are not alone.
For support:
You can contact Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre by:
leave a message on our call back phone: 0131 556 9437
text: 07966 067 301
email our support service at: support@ercc.scot
Rape Crisis Scotland's helpline 08088 01 03 02 (5pm - midnight every night) offers free and confidential support and information. They offer support to anyone aged 13 and over, of any gender, affected by any form of sexual violence, no matter when or how it happened. They support survivors, as well as family, friends, and supporters. They can arrange for free language interpreters, including British Sign Language, to access support if your first language is not English.
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