Scared Selfless Quotes

“All my life, I’d been trying to heal by focusing on me, me, me. But it turns out that true joy comes from helping others.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“Personally and professionally, it’s been my experience that suicidal people very much want to live. What they don’t want is to be in pain. They see suicide as the only way out.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“Child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, hate crimes, war crimes, genocide, and all other forms of interpersonal violence flourish in a culture of silence and shame.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“I don’t know why I’m so lucky, but I am overwhelmed every day by the beautiful life I am blessed to live. I pray that everyone gets a chance to experience this kind of happiness.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“If you can handle multiple personality disorder, I wouldn’t worry about grad school. It’s going to seem like a breeze.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“All my life, I’d been told, implicitly and explicitly, that I was a horrible person because I was moody, manipulative, bossy, selfish, rude. My parents, my teachers, my therapists all condemned me for these traits. Now here was Leah telling me they weren’t traits at all; they were merely symptoms. This was a huge distinction—the difference between being born with green skin versus a bully throwing a bucket of green paint over my head. Both made me unattractive. But paint, however thick, can be scrubbed off. Green skin, on the other hand, is in the DNA. It can’t be changed; it’s permanent.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“I attributed my trauma symptoms to inherent character flaws. I thought of myself as high-strung, overly sensitive, and a control freak. These negative assessments were also used by my family to describe me. Because I had frequent emotional outbursts that were triggered by trauma stimuli that appeared innocuous to others, I was also labeled as “moody.” My desperate attempts to regulate my affect through external change, such as demanding to sleep in the barn or insisting that a TV be turned off, got me branded as “manipulative.” Believing myself to have all of these innate negative qualities, it’s no surprise I suffered from feelings of shame, guilt, and deep self-loathing.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“Anytime I received positive feedback, it felt like the kudos were directed at my performance, not me. There was no me. And you can’t build self-esteem or self-confidence if you have no sense of self.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“It pays to stick it out through the hard parts. I promise.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving

“I selected a research method called autoethnography. It allows someone to study their own story within a cultural context like, say, a child living in a world fraught with rampant child sexual abuse.”
― Michelle Stevens, Scared Selfless: My Journey from Abuse and Madness to Surviving and Thriving