This has been on my mind for awhile now, so I want to just get it out.
When I was was a little kid, I very abruptly developed severe incontinence and had some X-rays done that showed my muscles were too weak to close all the way. My mom told me that it was because I had held it in too long instead of going to the bathroom when I needed to, and put me on a pee schedule. I never fully recovered, just got it fixed to a manageable level.
I took a drama class in middle school, and the teacher told me that the way I portrayed anger was very masculine. I have a number of behavioral quirks that are very masculine that other women don't seem to share or understand.
The first time that I put in a tampon, I panicked so badly that I nearly fainted, and had to spend time lying on the bathroom floor with my feet propped up on the side of the bathtub. I've never been able to use tampons.
As a teenager, I found the idea of sex to be repulsive and frightening and was very asexual until I met my husband. The first time we had sex was a lot more painful than I expected, and I bled a lot more than I expected. Currently, while I want to be able to want sex, my body won't cooperate. I can find something to be very mentally arousing, but have no physical response. On the flip side, I can feel very turned off, and my body will show entirely different signs. I also find orgasims to be very frightening, and prefer to avoid them.
I have absolutely NO memories of ever being sexually abused. I do have an older cousin who has been caught sending sexually explicit messages to 12 and 13 year old girls over the past few years, and our two families had spent a lot of time together during the right time frame. He also has a bizarre fixation with me that seems to keep going even though I've cut off all contact with him and most of my extended family for years now, so honestly it's not that hard to imagine that he did do something to me when I was little.
I don't want to start jumping to conclusions and making accusations, especially since I don't have any memories about it, but I've always felt like there was something that was abnormal about me, and sexual abuse might be the explanation. If so, how would I know and where would I even begin with addressing it?
When I was was a little kid, I very abruptly developed severe incontinence and had some X-rays done that showed my muscles were too weak to close all the way. My mom told me that it was because I had held it in too long instead of going to the bathroom when I needed to, and put me on a pee schedule. I never fully recovered, just got it fixed to a manageable level.
I took a drama class in middle school, and the teacher told me that the way I portrayed anger was very masculine. I have a number of behavioral quirks that are very masculine that other women don't seem to share or understand.
The first time that I put in a tampon, I panicked so badly that I nearly fainted, and had to spend time lying on the bathroom floor with my feet propped up on the side of the bathtub. I've never been able to use tampons.
As a teenager, I found the idea of sex to be repulsive and frightening and was very asexual until I met my husband. The first time we had sex was a lot more painful than I expected, and I bled a lot more than I expected. Currently, while I want to be able to want sex, my body won't cooperate. I can find something to be very mentally arousing, but have no physical response. On the flip side, I can feel very turned off, and my body will show entirely different signs. I also find orgasims to be very frightening, and prefer to avoid them.
I have absolutely NO memories of ever being sexually abused. I do have an older cousin who has been caught sending sexually explicit messages to 12 and 13 year old girls over the past few years, and our two families had spent a lot of time together during the right time frame. He also has a bizarre fixation with me that seems to keep going even though I've cut off all contact with him and most of my extended family for years now, so honestly it's not that hard to imagine that he did do something to me when I was little.
I don't want to start jumping to conclusions and making accusations, especially since I don't have any memories about it, but I've always felt like there was something that was abnormal about me, and sexual abuse might be the explanation. If so, how would I know and where would I even begin with addressing it?