Movies that deal with loss, abuse, or other difficult realities show one or another form of victimization.  This is not a word that most of us like to use, especially in reference to ourselves.  Victimization implies all sorts of negative things   Still there are times when each of us has gone through an experience that has to be called victimizing.

This booklet stresses the difference between being a victim (someone who has been harmed and still "suffers" from the bad experience) and a survivor (a person who has recovered and gone beyond the victimizing experience).

This booklet will help the reader understand how both petty and serious victimizations affect us and walk him through the fourteen characteristics of the recovery process to become a survivor:

Accepting that one has been victimized.
Expressing pain and anger appropriately.
Maintaining a reasonable sense of vulnerability.
Taking charge of one's life.
Focusing on controlling one's life.
Accepting what one cannot control.
Maintaining reasonable trust in others.
Testing reality.
Living with reasonable uncertainty.
Taking reasonable risks.
Acting despite fear and anxiety.
Accepting change.
Getting beyond the victimization.
Gaining from the victimizing experience.

Emphasis is placed on the need to look at oneself honestly to identify which of these areas with which the person struggles. The issue of change and people's resistance to change is addressed. Information is given about the types community resources available to the reader.

TS1002 (24 pgs.)

*Copyright 1995 Claremont Behavioral Studies Institute.

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