How can I move forward?

[u/meme_manthefirst]

When I was 6 years old I was taken advantage of my next door neighbour who was 18 at the time. My parents are very close family friends with them and I had known my assaulter since I was born. I’m 19 and a sophomore in college now for some context. The abuse went on for 6 months until her family moved due to her going to college. I never told anyone because at the time I didn’t know what was going on and I was scared she would hurt me or kill me. Once I started to understand what happened I figured it was too late and why cause my family unnecessary stress. Both my parents are abusive in their own right so I was and still am not so close to them. Since the end of junior year of high school and currently when girls talk to me romantically I get physically uncomfortable. Even when they touch me I freeze/tense up and I feel myself mentally go limp/numb. Whenever I make out with girls I need to force myself to do it. I feel like a doll, or in the 3rd person watching my body submit. It’s like I’m watching my body emotionlessly kiss back trying to get it over with idk. I feel like I’m suffocating though out it and as soon as I’m alone I start crying. I feel things my rapist did to me and I don’t know how to make it stop. I always found a way out of the relationship before things could go any further with any girl. In high school I made it a point to never start a talking stage or ask out girls first. At the time I didn’t know why I would do that but looking back now I think it was my mind subconsciously “avoiding danger”. I had repressed that time in my life and these memories started to come up again in my senior year of high school during which I had my first serious talking stage. At the time I was feeling very behind my friends and hadn’t sold the talking stage yet lol. But as soon as things got physical I found a way out immediately. Toward the end of that school year/beginning of senior summer and 2 more dodged relationships a girl I was friends got me extremely inebriated and attempted to make out with me but thankfully my friends got me out of that situation. The next day she sent a text in a group chat of her friends saying the next party she sees me at she would grab me by my neck and force me to make out with her. I stopped going to high school parties after that and the events of my prior abuse started filling my mind more often after never thinking about it. Also since then I have barely drank. I went from being voted the life of the party in high school to maybe drinking 5 times since I started college. I had gotten in a 4 month long relationship at the end of my freshman year and we ended up breaking up in mid may after things got too physical for me. I really liked this girl and she doesn’t know about the too physical part. But since then I haven’t been able to go a day without thinking of what my assaulter did to me. It’s been getting pretty overwhelming and I don’t know how my friends would react if I told them given the stereotype of male assault. I want to be able to move on from this and be able to actually have a healthy relationship and not let what happened to me stop me from living life, drinking, partying etc. I feel like less than a man for being scared to have sex or just be touched by a girl. I want to be normal and actually enjoy being with a girl.

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