Jimena

Since she was a child, Jimena knew that there was something that kept her from feeling good.

When I was a little girl, I used to come home from school and lock myself inside. When you are 12 or 13 years old and spend hours alone locked in your room, it is not normal. But as a society, we don’t talk about it, so you just accommodate yourself to this feeling ... you think it’s normal.

She lived with depression and anxiety for years. As soon as Jimena understood that she was struggling, she began her search for help.

I went through a few psychologists until I found my psychoanalytic psychologist. She was just what I needed, because she made me encounter the uncomfortable things I didn’t want to talk about.

In college, Jimena studied psychology and began researching pedophilia, but she didn’t know what drew her to examine this topic. She graduated and practiced in psychology for 10 years before opening a coffee shop. However, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and, with it, the closure of her business and the increase of her anxiety.

During the pandemic, I didn’t know what was going to happen. My father was in Colombia and not knowing if I would see him again or what would happen was very hard.

In August 2020, Jimena received a new diagnosis and started seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed medication to accompany her psychological treatment.

Through therapy, Jimena has worked through the effects of childhood sexual abuse and has come to understand that the trauma manifested itself in ways she could not understand at the time, hence her intrigue during college.

One night I had a dream in which I saw a man dressed in black with a hat: that’s when I knew, it was my anxiety turned into a figure. I don’t feel shame for being a survivor of abuse, I feel proud that I overcame the trauma and am healing.