From “Walk with Me: A Journey through the Landscape of Trauma” by Ellen Corcella
It took over four years to grasp the reason the domestic violence victim’s withdrawal and silence haunted me and left me with a sense of failure. When we have suffered abuse and trauma, we cannot make conscious connections to the events and feelings we encounter. It was not until I sat down to write this chapter (not the book, this specific chapter) that random fragments of memory flashed through my head. At first, I just saw figures against a black backdrop. I could not organize the scenes into a rational and linear order. I could not recall dates, words, or emotions. I ignored these flashbacks. A week or two later as I watched television, images again flooded my brain. My heat sank. Like the victim of domestic violence, I, too, had been stunned into silence.