Accepting something is not agreeing with it

I was abused as a child, and into my teenage years.

It made me angry, and I didn’t know what to do with that. I would stuff all of the emotion away until it exploded. The outbursts were massive. They put me in a mental hospital when I was ten, and again when I was twelve.

Somewhere in there I realized I was on a path that didn’t suit me, and that if it was going to change, I was the one who would have to change it.

The first thing I had to learn was self acceptance. I could not make any progress until I learned to accept what I was experiencing and how I was feeling.

Accept. Not agree with.

That distinction is the whole lesson. I did not have to approve of what happened, or of the anger, to admit that it was there. But until I admitted it was there, I had nothing to work with.