Warning: This post deals with graphic descriptions of child abuse and rape and may be triggering for some readers.
When Annie*, 50, watches rom-coms and the couple on screen start making love or passionately kissing on a park bench at sunset, it grosses her out.
To her, it doesn't seem real or even mildly plausible.
Despite being in three long-term relationships Annie has never had a loving, enjoyable experience of sex. Sex has always been a violent act in Annie's world. From the age of 10, her life has been dictated by a tragic tale of abuse, rape and torture.
Watch: Grace Tame on the power of child abuse survivor's stories. Post continues after video.
Her stepmum was her first abuser.
As Annie told Mamamia, she used to "tie me to a chair and penetrate me with objects".
"She would cut me on my vagina and clamp things - like pegs - on my breasts," Annie said.
Her stepmum never gave an explanation for the abuse, only to tell Annie it was a "game".
As a young girl, Annie would dissociate herself from the trauma, so much so she only remembers flashes of that time now. She does remember a metal ruler being used to make cuts on her body. She's thankful she doesn't remember what her stepmum put inside her.