Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I wrote a few weeks ago on some horrific events in my life in order to qualify myself as a survivor of trauma to reach other survivors that may be suffering or struggling. Friends told me it was hard to read and indeed no one should have to hear these travesties, but I assure you that experiencing them or seeing them happen to others is much harder. You see, you closed the newspaper and went on with your lives. Survivors never stop living these events. I said in my last letter that no two survivors are exactly alike so as I speak on my personal thoughts and emotions. I am sure other survivors will see similarities.

Trauma changed me as a child. I thought since something really bad happened then I must be really bad. As assaults continued, I felt more and more detached from others … isolated, just strange. I was desperate to do anything to change the way I felt. I went through times of being easily startled, could not concentrate and either didn’t...