what makes you feel like a survivor?

I am wondering what makes you all feel like a survivor

I am still going threw quite a bit of abuse from people, so dont really feel I've reached that status.

when you doubt yourself, or are unsure, how do you remind yourself- yes I am a survivor, yes I got threw it.

I just feel, as I'm still going threw it, I've not yet really survived...

Sorry to hear you’re being subjected to that, raging vortex. If you can’t get out, just hang in there!
Survival is when you’re still going through it, technically it makes you a survivor, but generally that feeling comes when the event is over for most people. I feel like a survivor when I realise I can learn something and grow from an experience.

I use the term overcomer for myself. I am 75 and when I look back at my life, I realize how much I have overcome....a childhood of fatherlessness, a violent mother, poverty, molestation and then an abusive marriage of 31 years......and abuse from a church.

Being able to volunteer as a facilitator for NAMI groups and help others with mental illness makes me feel like a survivor.

wow marie, I am sorry you went threw so much- and abuse from a church?

I like the way you look at it.. overcomer, and I think it fits with my situation a lot better- I overcome one lot of abuse, just to be abused again by someone else

maybe I'll be a survivor, when I'm no longer being abused by anyone

that would be a huge thing

(((( @raging vortex )))) - I'm so sorry you are still going through abuse. But you are a survivor because you are still alive, despite all the ongoing abuse. All the children in foster care and in dysfunctional homes are survivors because they are still alive and surviving the abuse. That's what it means to me, a survivor, still struggling with certain ongoing traumas as well as from past traumas. I may not be directly abused, but I definitely experience traumatic things every now and then.

I hope you are able to get out of your abusive situation soon.

To me, you're a survivor already.

Everyone can define themselves however they wish though. You can always replace the word "survivor" with something else.

thanks, @SprinkL3

it means a lot you posted