I’ve felt robbed of a decade of my life, because I know that the amount of time I’ve spent thinking about three horrible nights of my life is probably the amount of time I could’ve been laughing with an audience. Now I’m 27 years old, and I finally feel that I have the strength to use my voice. I feel lucky that I’ve found it again this soon. I feel lucky to have found positive communities and support. Not all survivors are so lucky.

In the last two years I’ve started feeling like myself again, finally trusting my own self-worth and confidence enough to work toward the life I’ve always wanted. But I mourn that lost time, and I’m still afraid. Right now it feels like I have the support of the entire world because I’ve spoken out against someone who most people agree is a villain. But I also feel like I could lose that support the moment I might speak out against someone who has their respect.

I’m proud that I spoke up about Harvey Weinstein that night. The overwhelming support I have received has made all of the difference, and it feels like I’ve somehow gotten a little bit of my lost time back.

A lot of the work in calling out rape, rapists and rape culture unfortunately still falls on survivors. We are the ones screaming out while others fall silent, boo or demand we “shut up.” I want other people to speak up for us so that we don’t have to. I want it to become normal to name the elephant in the room. And I don’t ever want to become comfortable sharing space with a monster.

When I stood onstage last Wednesday, I remember thinking that I really just wanted to get back to my set. I didn’t want to lose even 10 more minutes of my life to a rapist. I just wanted to let all of the rapists know what I think of them, and then get back to telling jokes. So that’s exactly what I did.

Laughter isn’t just medicine; it’s power. If I can laugh at the monster from my nightmares, if I can laugh at the most powerful predator in the entertainment world maybe my pain doesn’t control me as much as I thought it did.

Kelly Bachman is a stand-up comedian.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.