To make a very long story short, a few years back I was bullied badly by a bunch of female colleagues in college. It was emotional, verbal and passive aggressive bullying and extremely hurtful. It led to me ruining my emotional, physical health and ruined my academics and career as well. Fast forward four years later, I am rebuilding my life thanks to my supportive family, therapy and my own inner strength and will power to succeed in life and live my life to the fullest and achieve all my dreams. However, I still get nightmares and every time I think of those days, I get very pained. I am also scared that I might bump into any of them in the future and they (especially one particular female) will proceed to make my life miserable, even though I have no idea where or which state they are living in presently.

I have been doing a lot of meditation, reading up on thich nhat hanh books on mindfulness, forgiveness etc but the pain and helplessness never seem to go away and makes me feel very limited.

How do I regain my strength back and not be scared? I have come a long way and can now stand up for myself but every time I think of a future scenario such as bumping into them I feel helpless and hopeless.

Please help.