“That’s all in the past; I’m different now,” is really only relevant to your subjective self.

It may be good that you have found your essence has changed. It can be helpful to think yourself moved out of one category and into another.

To the rest of us, though, all we have access to are your actions in the common reality where we see (and felt) you harm others.

In that case, it’s not enough to stop driving the knife in or even pulling it out; there’s still wounds there you never should have given others and need repair before anyone can think of moving on. There is work — some loud and shiny but most quiet, thankless, and yeoman — you have to do put your back into for a long time before you can consider yourself out of arrears. And you may never accomplish that, if you can be honest with yourself. But you still have to do it.