@16sundayz I hadn’t really heard of exposure therapy until earlier this year.
I have a history with CSA starting when I was 8 (group assault), one of the group members assaulted me again a couple of weeks later. I was sexually assaulted by my mums best friends son when I was 10, and then endured 2years of sexual abuse by another friend of the family.
Each of these assaults happened in different places around the town I live in. I have avoided these places for 40years.
Earlier this year my husband and I drove past the house where the last lot of abuse happened, and out of the blue I asked my husband if he wanted to know where all the other assaults happened. We drove around town and I showed him where they were. I didn’t go into any of the places, but I was able to go very near to them, something I could never have contemplated doing these last 40 years.
At my next councillor’s appointment I told my councillor about that drive around town. He was surprised I’d done it, he told me that I had actually done exposure therapy to myself - I’d never really even heard of it before then.
I don’t feel like I’ve had any adverse reactions since that day regarding those places, I think I was ready to confront it. I’m not sure how well exposure therapy would have gone if I wasn’t ready to do it though. I’ve lived in this town all my life and I haven’t been able to go anywhere near those places for 40 years, but all of a sudden I was ready. It’s a different story wanting to actually go inside those places, I am a long way off being ready to do that.
I don’t know your circumstances so not sure what to advise. For me personally, I was ready up to a point and I don’t think it has done any harm. Would I consider exposure therapy to get myself from the outside to the inside of those places?? Right now, as of this moment, not in a million years.
