From FALLOUT: A Survivor Talks to Incest Offenders (and Others) by moi:

While growing up I did feel different from most of my classmates. I was carrying a deep, dark secret , one that had the potential of blowing up my world and the world of my family. That feeling grew until being different from others took on that aura of being worse than others and yet special at the same time. The feelings served to distance me from others, and as an adult one of my challenges has been to let go of this and other distancing mechanisms.(p. 137)

…Gil describes dissociation as a “common occurrence among adult survivors.” (1988, 149) Briere writes that “the presence of depersonalization, derealization, compartmentalization and so on may produce splits or shifting boundaries in the child’s sense of self….in the words of one angry (but articulate) adolescent survivor: “Don’t you understand? There’s nobody inside here to hear what you say. I’m just empty. I just do what happens.”(1992, 46). (p. 141)