Comment on Funny how your choice of words dictates your intent. Not really the other way around. Harmed. Not, Damaged. by tikvah

Parent Post: Funny how your choice of words dictates your intent. Not really the other way around. Harmed. Not, Damaged.

tikvah · 10/2/2026, 4:10:48 PM · permalink

With all due respect...  I really like this distinction. “Damaged” makes a person sound like an object that has been broken and can no longer be what it was intended to be. “Harmed” tells a different story—it acknowledges that something happened \*to\* the person without making that experience their identity.

And I especially appreciate what you said about recognition. Maybe healing begins when we can say, “Yes, I was harmed,” without having to conclude, “Therefore, I am damaged.”

None of us comes through life untouched. We are all shaped by what happens to us, but we are not reducible to what happened to us. There is still choice, growth, teshuvah, and the possibility of becoming something new.

And yes, I can say for myself, Tikvah was certainly shaped by some of those experiences—but I don't see myself as damaged goods. I see myself as still becoming. ❤️

Maybe that is the real difference: \*\*damage describes a condition; harm describes an experience.\*\* And an experience can become part of our story without becoming the definition of who we are.

5 bumps

saarnok · 10/2/2026, 9:39:11 PM · permalink

2 bumps

Signature