Hi, this is for the anon who was talking about using fandom to cope with surviving csa. I’m a survivor too, though I’ve got some more distance on it.

I thought I’d gotten past it.

There’s a story, though, that showed me I still have a lot of work to do. I’m nervous about putting it forward because . . . saying “trigger warning” doesn’t scratch the surface. It’s not about the event itself. In fact you can skip that entirely. It’s about all the unhealthy ways we blindly cope afterward, believing we’re doing what it takes to survive.

I knew it was a dark fic, and I generally like those, but I’m not exaggerating when I say it put me in a full body anxiety attack so deep I almost landed in the ER. I got back into therapy That Day. It was a violent way to crack through the repression, though a necessary one, for me.

But I encourage the other anon to proceed with extreme caution. Especially since Hannibal and Will are generally their comfort characters, and in this fic they’re the aggressors toward Hugh Dancy’s character Adam.

It feels insane to say “this hurts so much, try it!” but the anon talked about feeling seen. Reading that story made me feel more seen in my stumbling recovery than decades of therapists and well intentioned loved ones.

The story is Shelter Us, Harbor Me by lovetinture. It’s is skillfully and wrenchingly well written. If they’re interested, I wrote a follow up story called Seaglass to help process the firestorm of emotions Shelter Us caused and try to get the characters to a place of peace.

I wish them well in their recovery, and I thank you for facilitating such raw and necessary conversations.

Oh, wow, thank you for sharing. I’m curious to understand the plot, so I too will be checking this out! Proceed with caution everyone who wants to read it! And I’m so glad you were able to move through that, anon, triggers can be quite brutal, I’m glad you were able to get help <3.