Don’t Tell Me I will be Ok – Ask Me how I am
Don’t Tell Me to stop crying – Ask Me why I am
Don’t Tell Me you are doing it wrong – Ask Me if I know how
Don’t Shout at Me if you are angry – Ask Me about it when you are calm
Don’t Punish Me for trying to talk to you – Ask Me gently what I want to say
Don’t assume you know best for Me – Ask Me how I feel about it
Don’t Make Me feel guilty for saying no – Ask Me what’s right for me
Don’t Talk about Me when I am in the room – Ask Me my thoughts about it too
Don’t Tell Me I am bad – Ask Me why I did it
Don’t Tell Me to be strong – Ask Me how you can help
Don’t Tell Me to get over it – Ask Me what I need
Don’t Judge Me on what you have heard – Ask Me about my story
Don’t Label Me by your own beliefs – As Me about my journey
Don’t Tell Me – Ask Me no matter how young I am
Don’t Tell Me how I should be – Ask Me how it is
Don’t Tell Me how I should Act – Ask Me if I know
Don’t Tell Me who I am – Ask Me who am I
Don’t Tell Me to respect you – Ask Me what respect means to Me
Don’t Tell Me to hug you – Ask Me how I feel about it
Don’t Tell Me to kiss you – Ask Me as I have a choice
I maybe young and vulnerable – However I am older than my age. Ask Me how it feels at times so I can use my voice to speak out and be heard.
Having a voice and communicating with each other can be very difficult at times, especially when trying to broach difficult subjects. These words were written by me as an Adult Survivor of Childhood Abuse and Trauma and were not written with the intention of sharing, however I am happy to share to enable conversations to be opened in many ways.
