By Tara Overzat
Over the years, I have been lucky to have a lot of good friends from all over the world. However, I fell into a habit that I was only recently able to shake- getting close to toxic people.
Toxic people may be drug addicts or alcoholics; perverts; criminals; or just normal-seeming people who put you down at every turn, feeding off negative energy and kicking you when you’re down.
While good friends and associates tell you that you are mature, responsible, intelligent and cute (and are straight with you when you miss the mark), toxic people will tell you that you are immature, crazy, dumb and fat all of the time. Any praise you get from them is backhanded and intended to make the toxic person feel better about himself.
Growing up, these dual messages were all I got. When teachers, classmates, or other “outsiders” congratulated me on my accomplishments, all my mother could say was, “They don’t know what you’re like at home!” Read more »
by Tara Overzat
I think about the numerous reasons I stayed quiet about being abused until now, and even as an adult I have a fear of retaliation for speaking up.
Some of it was very likely programmed into me as a child, the overt threats and abominable lies that kept me in line. Threats of an even worse life; threats of death.
Today I can’t help but fear that some boogeyman is going to get me for writing about all this. I have not received a single threat, but still the fear lingers… would someone I know actually kill me over this? Or have I been watching too much Law & Order?
All I know for sure are the wise words of Mark Twain, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.” I will not stop because I feel afraid or unsure of what will come next. Truly, none of us know what will happen next year, next week or even in the next few minutes. Fear cannot paralyze us or we will never learn how to live.
By Tara Overzat
My life is pretty good these days, and I have had some very bright, shining moments, seeing and doing things some people only dream of.
However, I do have my regrets. My biggest one is that I hid the burden of my child abuse for way too long. I realize some people never talk about it, and others don’t begin to talk about it til middle age or later, but I have already seen the consequences of keeping this a secret.
I dated someone in college whom I fear I hurt the most with this secret. Read more »
By Tara Overzat
Not only has going public been difficult, embarrassing, and painful, it was something that even a few months ago I would never have dreamed of doing. I had always kept my mouth shut, and suffered the terrible consequences of doing so- one of which was not allowing people to get too close to me. My denial of the past cost me people I wish were in my life today, people I may not be able to get back.
I tried quietly to handle Read more »
Tags: Adeline Yen-Mah, child abuse, Dave Pelzer, fear, Jeannette Walls, Living With Child Abuse, Oprah Winfrey, secrecy, speaking up
Healing, Personal, Surviving | admin, 7 Jul 09 | 
Comments (0)
By Tara Overzat
For the survivor of child abuse, the events that happened don’t just go away. If they are not dealt with they may manifest into the strangest of problems in your life. (See The Michael Jackson Tragedy- What Happens When You Don’t Deal With Your Past) As such, all of us who survived child abuse are “living with child abuse” for the rest of our lives.
But we can still have great and accomplished lives. (See What Will Happen to the Children?) Here are some strategies that I have used to deal with the past while living very much in the present.
1) Keep your sense of humor. Read more »
Tags: anxiety, depression, Living With Child Abuse, loving detachment, overwhelmed, regret, surviving child abuse
Acts of Kindness, Alcoholism, Healing, Personal, Surviving | admin, 5 Jul 09 | Comments (0)
By Tara Overzat
I never remember being spoke to as a child by either of my parents. My mother used me, from about the age of 5 on, as confidant and, surprisingly, advice giver. So dependent was she on my father, that when he mercifully left, she sincerely did not know how to do the simplest of things.
Not long after my father left, we went to visit my fraternal grandfather, who lived 3 miles away from us in our New York town, a town she had lived in well before I was born. Leaving his home, she got to the stop sign down the street and asked “Left or right?” Read more »
By Tara Overzat
My mother squandered what little money she received from the divorce, and for years we went without.
My father, through means never shared with me but indeed shady, had money to spare. He liked to eat out at nice restaurants, and as usual, me and my brother’s presence would not keep him from doing whatever he wanted. As such, I was going to school unshowered with holes in my shoes Read more »
By Tara Overzat
Some of the things I’ve written about are going to sound horrible and shocking to people. But for me and my brother, this was normal. This was life. So, along with the bad times, in our perception, there were plenty of good times too.
Now, our good times may not be your good times. Read more »
By Tara Overzat
I remember our house being clean and nice when my mother and father were still married. He fortunately wasn’t around much, and I remember always being afraid of him. In fact, there was Read more »
By Tara Overzat
I thought it must be really hard raising me and my brother, and I lived in denial of the reality of our lives. My mother not only worked very little (when she worked at all), she performed few activities in the home as well, choosing to spend hours on end watching TV. Read more »
