crystalldragon:

imo something that doesn’t get talked about often among (emotional) abuse victims is how we react to people who are actually friendly and respectful towards us? like it’s such a weird feeling. our brain tells us that something’s wrong bc we’re not used to it, right? we’re used to being disrespected, humiliated, insulted and not taken seriously. we’re used to being on the edge, awaiting the moment that people stab us in the back. so someone, especially an authority figure, being genuinely kind for a change is almost… scary? usually, if others are being friendly, we’re speculating what they could be up to, why they could secretly hate us, how they’re gonna hurt us. and that’s one of the difficult aspects of being an abuse victim imo. learning how to deal with people who really care about us.