How do we distinguish a survivor from a victim?

Question

Is a victim of severe trauma (the most severe) not a survivor, is a survivor of same not a victim? How can we tell the difference?

Answer 1

These terms are very problematic because of the ways they are used.

In general:

A victim is someone who was harmed or killed by another or by some event. To be harmed can mean a lot of different things: molested, insulted, demeaned, abused, assaulted, and many other options.

A survivor is someone who continued to live and succeed despite being a victim.

In therapy people are often taught to refer to themselves as survivors rather than victims because thinking of yourself as a victim is said to continue your victimization. You tend to relive the event in which you were victimized.

But when you think about it, the term "survivor" is a constant reminder that someone or some event caused you harm, and in a sense it continues to give that person or event power.

Personally, I prefer to look at bad events as bad events that happened in the past. Even though these things affect us, sometimes quite deeply, the most healing goal is to build up a collection of better events- to actively engage in activities that are beneficial in order to work toward diminishing the event that hurt us in the past.

Answer 2

Many years ago, I was victimized by several traumatic events. I witnessed my roommates brutal death, was kidnapped, held hostage, raped repeatedly,beaten, and the list continues.These events took place over a 9 hour period. I choose to say I was victimized, even though a victim is a person who suffers from a destructive or injurious event. Victimized is the word that refers to the past tense; to make a victim of. I also consider myself a survivor, not only in the sense that I am alive and continue to exist, but HOW I choose to live my existence. The difference between victim and survivor are as tantamount as the words day and night

Answer 3

A survivor is both.
Yet a victim is someone whom may not recover.

A person that over comes the trauma and learns from the experience and continues on with life is the healthy survivor.

Answer 4

A survivor is a victim who lives

Answer 5

As Froyd assimilated, what we have here is a situation in which the victim would be in the negative, as to where the said survivor would take a position as to be in the positive. This sentence is to be repeated with a sneer in the voice, and also with a noticeable quality of superiority, which can be achieved by speaking through the appendage that has a tendency to stick out from ones face. :)

Answer 6

Since not all victims are left alive only the living victims can be survivors.

Answer 7

Someone who has been exposed is both a victim and a survivor - but how they see themselves determines which they should be called. Someone who broods in the pain and suffering would be considered a victim. Someone who uses the experience to promote positivity in life and health would be considered a survivor.

Answer 8

It is a matter of perspective. A survivor in the most active sense has given up the right to have a disempowering victim mentality.

In the loosest sense, both can be victims.

Answer 9

You can be a victor or a victim, you can't be both.

A victor rises above the trauma and manages to do well in life in spite of it. A victor never blames his/her failures on the trauma.

A victim uses the trauma as a ready-made crutch to excuse failures, and never gets beyond the trauma.

A survivor is a victor.

Answer 10

Victims don't always live. Survivors, obviously, do.