How long did it take you to recover and start trusting strangers again - after having been ripped off/swindled/bamboozled/pick one?

Trust with my emotions? I would have to burned more than once probably to spend a long time not trusting. I have so many people around me I do trust, that the one bad seed would not change me much. I like to build rapport fast with people, share myself, etc. If I had to be more careful and more susupicious it would really bother me. Of course there are certain things I don’t reveal when first meeting and building a relationship, but that is true already before and after the bad experience.

Trust with money? I would probably never trust again, or not for a long time. I am not sure how a stranger would wind up with my money? But, that would really scar me, I would become way more paranoid about it.

Trust someone who is a love interest? I tend to trust there too. I kind of trust my instincts about these things, so I figure I will know fairly soon if someone is a cheater and a liar.

I suppose it would be proportional to how awful the experience was. In my worst experiences, I’ve absolutely despised humanity for a few days or weeks, then moved on. It helps to remember that most people are decent and it is just a few that make other lives miserable. And in these same awful experiences, it was strangers who helped me out of the situations, too. So that probably made it easier to see both sides.

I have never trusted people very easily. That changed for me when we had a small store and I was exposed t a lot of strangers and people of all types (especially types that I would not have trusted in the past). I came to see that most people are good.

I am basically a trusting person, but I guess it would depend on your experience. I’ve never been ripped off, or swindled from, because when it comes to money I’m cautious and I believe there are no or very few get rich quick schemes.

I’m not the trusting type, not even most of those who would call themselves my friends have my trust. Harder to be hurt if no one is close to you

I am very slow to trust, but once you’ve gotten into that small inner circle, I’m quick to forgive. We’re all human, and we all make mistakes, sometimes big horrible ones. But as for trusting strangers? Never have, never will. Trust is earned, not given.

Ah, I’m sorry to hear you’re hurting from some asshole taking advantage of you.

It takes me a long time after such an experience. One thing that helps me is that I have a couple – literally 2 – very trusted friends, so I can talk to them about it. Talking helps me. It takes away some of my fear and shame. Putting it out in the open helps me heal.

I’m sorry too, @zensky. Such a shame when someone takes advantage of another person. The one lesson my Mom and Dad taught me about dealing with finances was to never loan money or things that are important enough to wreck a friendship over if they get torn-up or don’t get returned. If someone needs something and you can afford to give it to them, let them have it without ever expecting it back.

Obviously, I don’t know what happened to you. If it something more emotional, that sucks even worse. Maybe it is being a female and having to be out by myself throughout my career at night, but it takes a whole lot for me to trust a stranger.

Again, sorry for whatever it was that messed with your emotions.

When it comes to strangers, I guess I never had to recover. Maybe I assume they could disappoint me beforehand so if and when it happens, I’m quite prepared.

It does fade, but always leaves bullet marks.

I suppose that I’ve been miss led, bated and switched, sucker-punched and cheated too many times as I now trust NO ONE except my wife. Oh and my two cats (Rocky and Sheeba).

I pretty much trust everyone, until a specific person gives me a reason to not trust them. That distrust doesn’t then get transferred to other people, so I’m ready to trust the next one all over again. I hope whatever happened to you is not too serious, and that your trust comes back.

It shook me up pretty good. I’m not AS trusting as I used to be…but still too trusting as recent events at work have shown.

I took my lesson from the experience to be that I should not ever extend my trust in such a situation again.