You don’t “have” to use any language that doesn’t feel right, to you, to describe yourself or your experience.
Maybe “trauma” feels right; maybe it doesn’t.
Maybe “survivor” feels right; maybe it doesn’t.
Some people find it useful and validating to call themselves “survivors” and what they went through “trauma;” others find those labels stressful or distracting.
Most of the people reading this have had others try to define and police their language when it comes to describing their experience— which is condescending, invalidating, and controlling.
F*ck that.
Whatever language you prefer to describe yourself and what you went though, we can agree that your experiences conditioned you to feel, think, believe, and behave in certain patterns; and that to undo that damage, we need to choose and condition alternative patterns of feeling, thinking, believing, and behaving.
I choose to call those formative experiences “trauma” and reconditioning those experiences “recovery,” but call them what you want.
The language we use is less important than the consistent, incremental effort we put in, hour by hour, day by day.
You get to choose.
Don’t let the language trip you up.
Focus on the tools and strategies that will realistically lead you to feeling, doing, and experiencing more of what you want and value, and less of what you want to leave behind.
Use Your Damn Skills 