Reached 6000 Members Today

[Kizzie]

I remember when I started OOTS in August 2014 and wondered if anyone would join. Every day now there are 3-4 people joining so that number is just going to continue to rise which sadly is an indication of just how prevalent complex trauma is and how many survivors are out there.

At least now we are able to find and connect with one another via the Internet, in the past so many of us were isolated and struggling alone. There is power and healing in community as Dr. Judith Herman (first to identify CPTSD in 1992) suggests:

Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection with others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. Trauma isolates; the group re-creates a sense of belonging. Trauma shames and stigmatizes; the group bears witness and affirms. Trauma degrades the victim; the group exalts her. Trauma dehumanizes the victim; the group restores her humanity.

Repeatedly in the testimony of survivors there comes a moment when a sense of connection is restored by another person's unaffected display of generosity. Something in herself that the victim believes to be irretrievably destroyed---faith, decency, courage---is reawakened by an example of common altruism. Mirrored in the actions of others, the survivor recognizes and reclaims a lost part of herself.

Herman, J. (1997). Trauma and recovery: The aftermath of violence from domestic abuse to political terror. New York: Basic Books

[Three Roses]

Thank you for creating this space for us.

[Not Alone]

Thank you for creating and continuing this site.

[SharpAndBlunt]

Congratulations on this milestone and also a heartfelt thank you from me. 

[Blueberry]

Thanks for creating this site and keeping it going! It means so much to me, gives me such opportunities for healing or sometimes just coping