i lost half my family bc they don’t believe me
my father raped me for years in my early childhood. my memories came back in stages, some are still murky, but some are very explicit and sodomy-forward. i came forward about some of it when i was 16, hoping it could keep my younger siblings safe. over time, it became very clear that my dad’s side of the family doesn’t believe me (aside from my tía). my siblings want nothing to do with me, their mom/ my dad’s ex wife doesn’t want me in their life. this is so hard. i helped raise them as the latine oldest sibling, i really felt like they were my babies, and now they’re growing up without me because i wasn’t willing to stay in touch with my rapist. i didn’t get to say goodbye to my grandpa before he died, because my father was his caretaker. it’s been almost 10 years since i last saw any of my siblings. one of them had a baby, i found out through our tía. is it normal to still be feeling so much grief over the repercussions of coming forward about my abuse?