One of the ways victims of abuse survive the ordeal is by shutting down their feelings…numbing themselves to stave the pain away. The victims live emotionless days on end because perpetuators seesaw between kindness and hostility; treating them like objects and showering them with unwelcome attention. Their lives are a smorgasbord of physical, emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse.

When they somehow make it out, they are so emotionally shut down it is difficult to reach them. No matter how sad, hurt, lonely they are, they would rather ball themselves within rather than feel the pain again. Only kindness and empathy break through the steel.

*Image borrowed from the Internet