Some people find comfort and inspiration in quotes. Here is my collection of quotes about childhood abuse, trauma, healing, and more that can aid you in your healing journey. I also hope you enjoy the drawings along the way. 🙂
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Some psychological counseling agencies and mental health associations make custom mental health pins in bulk for their members. These custom pins have printed text and simple drawings, which can provide comfort and encouragement. If you’re interested in a professional enamel pin manufacturer, check out GS-JJ to learn more.
Quotes About Childhood Abuse
“After all, who isn’t a survivor from the wreck of childhood?”
– Nicole Krauss
“Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.”
– Herbert Ward
“It’s easier to build up a child than it is to repair an adult.”
– Frederick Douglass
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
– Alexander Den Heijer
“Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul.”
– Dave Pelzer, A Child Called “It”
“Adulthood is an attempt to become the antithesis of the wounded child within us.”
– Stewart Stafford
“Abuse is never deserved, it is an exploitation of innocence.”
– Lorraine Nilon
“Experience has taught us that we have only one enduring weapon in our struggle against mental illness: the emotional discovery and emotional acceptance of the truth in the individual and unique history of our childhood.”
– Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child
“Children are not things to be molded, but people to be unfolded.”
– Jess Lair
“Most adult children of toxic parents grow up feeling tremendous confusion about what love means and how it’s supposed to feel. Their parents did extremely unloving things to them in the name of love. They came to understand love as something chaotic, dramatic, confusing, and often painful – something they had to give up their own dreams and desires for.”
– Susan Forward, Toxic Parents
“Children need models rather than critics.”
– Joseph Joubert
“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”
– Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“Perhaps there was no more detrimental consequence of our childhood abandonment than being forced to habitually hide our authentic selves. Many of us come out of childhood believing that what we have to say is as uninteresting to others as it was to our parents.”
– Pete Walker, Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving
“Your abusive parent cheated you out of a childhood and you have every right to be angry about that.”
“People-pleasers often start out as parent-pleasers.”
“You survived the abuse. Now, you’ll survive the recovery.”
Quotes About Trauma
“Trauma is personal. It does not disappear if it is not validated. When it is ignored or invalidated the silent screams continue internally heard only by the one held captive. When someone enters the pain and hears the screams healing can begin.”
– Danielle Bernock, Emerging with Wings
“A trigger is the connection between the conscious mind and a buried painful memory.”
“My trauma isn’t me. My trauma does not define me. I am more than my trauma. It isn’t my personality, hobbies, or interests. It is what happened to me.”
“Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become experts at ignoring their gut feelings and numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.”
– Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score
“People are afraid to heal because their entire identity is centered around the trauma they’ve experienced. They have no idea who they are outside of trauma and that unknown is terrifying.”
– Ebonee Davis
“The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect.”
– Peter Levine
“We cannot have a world where everyone is a victim. ‘I’m this way because my father made me this way…’ Yes, we are indeed formed by traumas that happen to us. But then you must take charge, you must take over, you are responsible.”
– Camille Paglia
“The past can tick away inside us for decades like a silent time bomb, until it sets off a cellular message that lets us know the body does not forget the past.”
– Donna Jackson Nakazawa, Childhood Disrupted
“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.”
– Carl Jung
“Triggers are like little psychic explosions that crash through avoidance and bring the dissociated, avoided trauma suddenly, unexpectedly, back into consciousness.”
– Carolyn Spring
“Even if you’ve accumulated a house full of nice things and the picture of your life fits inside a beautiful frame, if you have experienced trauma but haven’t excavated it, the wounded parts of you will affect everything you’ve managed to build.”
– Oprah Winfrey, What Happened to You?
“After a traumatic experience, the human system of self-preservation seems to go onto permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment.”
– Judith Lewis Herman
“Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.”
– Michelle Rosenthal
Quotes About Healing
“There is no one way to recover and heal from any trauma. Each survivor chooses their path or stumbles across it.”
– Laurie Matthew
“The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.”
“Sometimes, the hardest part of the journey is simply believing you’re worthy of the trip.”
“We are often loyal to our suffering, our regrets, our losses, focusing on the trauma of what happened to me… But is that what defines you?”
– Donna Jackson Nakazawa, Childhood Disrupted
“People think healing looks like having huge visible breakthroughs when really, it’s just a series of small decisions that reprogram your subconscious mind. One healthy activity at a time is a great starting point.”
“We repeat what we don’t repair.”
– Christine Langley-Obaugh
“So often survivors have had their experiences denied, trivialized, or distorted. Writing is an important avenue for healing because it gives you the opportunity to define your own reality.”
– Ellen Bass, The Courage to Heal
“Sometimes the strength within you is not a big fiery flame for all to see. It can be a tiny spark that whispers ever so softly, ‘You got this. Keep going’.”
“Remember, tears are like rivers that start in one place and flow to another – they can help carry you to healing.”
– Susan Forward, Mothers Who Can’t Love
“The deeper you heal, the higher you raise the bar on who has access to you.”
“Healing means releasing yourself from the version of you that you created for survival.”
“Grief is like the ocean, it comes in waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.”
– Vicki Harrison
“An unacknowledged trauma is like a wound that never heals over and may start to bleed again at any time.”
– Alice Miller, Thou Shalt Not Be Aware
“There is no timestamp on trauma. There isn’t a formula that you can insert yourself into to get from horror to healed. Be patient. Take up space. Let your journey be the balm.”
– Dawn Serra
“Instead of saying, ‘I’m damaged, I’m broken, I have trust issues.’ I say ‘I’m healing, I’m rediscovering myself, I’m starting over’.”
– Horacio Jones
“Healing comes in waves. On some days, you will drown. On other days, you will float. On some days, you will feel broken. And on other days, you will feel renewed. This is a reminder to be patient with yourself.”
“We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.”
– Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection
“Healing happens when you’re triggered and you’re able to move through the pain, the pattern, the story and walk your way to a different ending.”
– Vienna Pharaon
“It is because of hope that you suffer. It is through hope that you’ll change things”.
– Maxime Lagace
“Breaking the cycle of abuse is not only refusing to abuse others, but also refusing to abuse yourself.”
“Getting mad at yourself for slipping back into old habits is like getting mad at yourself for shivering when it’s cold. It’s just what we’re wired to do. It’s not a ‘failing’. New habits are ‘new’ because we don’t have a lot of practice YET. We’re not good at them YET.”
– Glenn Doyle
“Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.”
– Akshay Dubey
“Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn’t you – all the expectations, all of the beliefs – and becoming who you are.”
– Rachel Naomi Remen
“Healing from trauma can also mean strength and joy. The goal of healing is not a papering-over of changes in an effort to preserve or present things as normal. It is to acknowledge and wear your new life – warts wisdom, and all – with courage.”
– Catherine Woodiwiss
“Wounds won’t heal the way you want them to. They heal the way they need to.”
– Dele Olanubi
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
– Socrates
“Instead of treating your child like how you were treated. Treat them with the same love and attention you wanted from your parents while growing up.”
– Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Neglected But Undefeated
“One day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through and it will be someone else’s survival guide.”
– Brene Brown
“Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.”
– Robert H. Schuller
Quotes About Strength
“Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.”
– Oprah Winfrey
“Always remember, if you have been diagnosed with PTSD, it is not a sign of weakness; rather, it is proof of your strength, because you have survived!”
– Michel Templet
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”
– Arnold Schwarzenegger
“Survivors of abuse show us the strength of their personal spirit every time they smile.”
– Jeanne McElvaney, Healing Insights
“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.”
– Oliver Wilkins
Quotes About Self-Care & Self-Love
“Loving yourself isn’t vanity. It’s sanity.”
– Katrina Mayer
“We were born to be real, not to be perfect.”
“Never think that what you have to offer is insignificant. There will always be someone out there who needs what you have to give.”
“Don’t let fear determine how you treat yourself. You deserve to give yourself unconditional love.”
“You can learn, but you’ve got to give yourself time to pick up the basics, to practice, and maybe even fail once or twice.”
– Susan Forward, Toxic Parents
“We accept the love we think we deserve.”
– Stephen Chbosky
“When you are your own best friend, you don’t endlessly seek out relationships, friendships, and validation from the wrong sources because you realize that the only approval and validation you need is your own.”
– Mandy Hale
“Your past mistakes are meant to guide you, not define you.”
“Compassion isn’t some kind of self-improvement project or ideal that we’re trying to live up to. Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves, all those imperfections that we don’t even want to look at.”
– Pema Chodron
“We can’t hate ourselves into a version of ourselves we can love.”
– Lori Deschene
“Self love: It doesn’t mean that everyone will treat you the way you deserve to be treated. It means that you won’t let them change the way you see yourself; nor will you stick around for them to destroy you.”
– Tony A. Gaskins Jr.
“Instead of hating yourself for everything that you are not, try to love yourself for everything that you are.”
“Strive to magnify someone’s strengths instead of their weaknesses. Do this for yourself as well.”
“To love yourself is to understand you don’t need to be perfect to be good.”
“Your value doesn’t decrease just because someone can’t see your worth.”
“There is a difference between thinking you deserve to be happy and knowing you are worthy of happiness. So often we block our blessings because we don’t, at our core, feel that we’re enough.”
– Oprah Winfrey, What Happened to You?
“There will always be someone that will not see your worth. Just never let that person be you.”
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
“Healthy self-care means finding fulfillment so that you have energy, love, and empathy for others. Finding the middle ground means realizing that it is not an either-or situation – you are neither full of self nor drained of self.”
– Karyl McBride, Will I Ever Be Good Enough?
“Instead of being ashamed of what you’ve been through, be proud of what you have overcome.”
“Remind yourself that you cannot fail at being yourself.”
– Wayne Dyer
“Remember that if you really want to motivate yourself, love is more powerful than fear.”
– Kristin Neff, Self-Compassion
“You don’t find your worth in a partner. You find your worth within yourself and then find a partner who’s worthy of you.”
“You are allowed to celebrate your growth, no matter what someone else’s looks like.”
“As you revisit your past, know that no matter what happened, your simply being here, alive, makes you worthy. And know that there is hope.”
– Oprah Winfrey, What Happened to You?
“Stop and thank yourself for how far you’ve come. You’ve been trying to make changes in your life and all your effort counts.”
“You are allowed to take up space. Own who you are and what you want for yourself. Stop downplaying the things you care about, the hopes you have. Own your passions, your thoughts, your perceptions. Own your fire. Stop putting your worth in the hands of others; stop letting them decide your value. Own saying no, saying yes. Own your mood, your feelings. Own your plans, your path, your success.”
– Bianca Sparacino, The Strength in Our Scars
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