I Can’t Listen to People’s Trauma Stories Anymore

But I can help in other ways

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I was raped by a stranger while taking a walk on the beach over thirty years ago. I was in my mid-twenties. I was married and had a fifteen-month-old daughter when it happened. It blew up my life. For years.

I let the rape define me for a long time. I thought people could tell as soon as they saw me, even…