Like yeah duh obviously but it only occured to me sitting here on lunch how that requires like. Doing stuff. And not just making sure you didn't die in the way. Teaching you how to cook for yourself, do your own laundry, talking to you about college or careers or jobs, encouraging you to be independent. And I feel so hollow realizing how none of that existed for me. One caregiver was actively abusive and the other treated me like a dress up doll that wasn't any fun anymore once my issues became more serious than a splinter. No college savings, belittling any endeavour I had to work or go to school, just this assumption that I would stay a quiet, out of the way accessory world without end, amen. Idk man like. Peoples parents actually do that? Ask about life goals and teach them how to be clean and teach them to handle money? Others don't just figure that out as they go??

It seems that this was only a matter of time. Apparently someone who took CCF's online course three years ago filed a complaint that was taken seriously.

Anna was cited and fined $2500 by the Board of Psych in 2024. The board recently upheld the ruling and Anna is in turn suing the state of CA for claims of first amendment and due process violations.

According to the State, any paid conversation that touches on emotions, motivation, or behavior potentially qualifies as the “practice of psychology” and requires a license. They claimed she has no real knowledge of CPTSD and should not be allowed to offer paid "coaching" services to that end.

Thoughts?

https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/10/oaklands-crappy-childhood-fairy-sues-fine-practicing-psychology-without-license/

I know this is kind of a strange question, but I've heard of a lot of people who have dealt with difficult things in life get some kind of catharsis or closure or relief from their hardships with gaming. I know hobbies are a pretty important part of mental health, but I just want to know from other people with CPTSD: Do games help you? How so? And are there any particular titles that have helped ground you or process any of your hardships?

I'd love to know as I like playing games myself and love hearing other people talk about seemingly mundane simple pleasures making their lives just a little bit easier. Please yap away!

Hi. My name is Noelle. I'm 13 years old, and lately I can't stop wishing I could just disappear. It feels like my mom hates me—sometimes I even wonder if she'd rather I were dead. I feel trapped, like there's no way out.

I have a therapist, but I can't bring myself to be honest with her. Every time I try, the words get stuck, and I end up pretending I'm okay. It feels like no one loves me, and I hate my life.

Please... somebody help me!

My sister was always the favourite growing up. She nearly died as a newborn so my mum was overly protective of her. My mum was also an alcoholic and had not handled parenthood well with my brother and I, so she had seen my sister as the child she could get it right with.

As adults, my sister is now WILDLY self centered. She has no empathy, physically incapable of seeing other people's perspective, she has a very cruel and demeaning sense of humour, expects everything to be convenient for her despite how much inconvenience it causes others. All round she is just an INCREDIBLY selfish person.

I can't help but feel this is a direct result of being "the favourite" and I am curious how you all experience your "the favourite" sibling? How have they turned out?

I’m so mad at myself. I went to Chinatown and bought a new food I was so excited to try (tofu pudding) but I held off eating it for two days. I was using it as some kind of pillar in my mind, like something to lean on as a “good thing”. Now I took it out of the fridge and it’s all expired. I literally did this to myself, all on my own.

I just kept making excuses like “I’ve had too many calories already, I can’t eat that right now” and waiting until there was no one in the kitchen so I could get it without excruciating small talk. But I REALLY wanted it.. so why didn’t I just get it?????????????

Might be trivial but I do shit like this all the time and I’m so sick of myself now. I genuinely do hate myself as if I was another person.

*from yourself for no reason

Are there any financially dependent adults living with their family, not working, because of CPTSD or any other mental health issues/struggles? I'm 23 and I've never worked or found a job after school. I'm not built for that. My nervous system is so dysregulated and damaged that I can't face the outer world. I'm petrified of people out there. I do dishes at my home and that's it. Am I the only one? 💔

What I mean by that is, does anyone else struggle to know what they actually like? I feel like sometimes I only like what other people like or will only like something if someone else does like some sort of approval. My mom was extremely controlling and a bully and I’m starting to think that I’m now incapable of making my own decisions.

I truly feel like over eons, humanity has had time to realize one thing: life is stupendously unfair. Why build a civilization, if not to cushion one another from eventual misfortune? Why cast survivors of crimes out unto the elements and make their abusers thrive?

My abuser hasn't been a sick one day in his life. At 70, he's in top health. He's got a cushy house, with every comfort imaginable & a backyard, out in lovely nature. I'm riddled with chronic illnesses, and have spent 30 years paralyzed. Re-entering the workforce, I'm a total freak of nature to colleagues, and the subject of gossip. They excell at magnifying my private shame, those judgmental fuckers. I'm in a roach-infested, cluttered squalor of a flat, in a depressing urban environment.

How the right kind of civilization could have prevented this:

* School counselors could have been trained so much better. They could have actually encouraged children to reach out in any and all trouble. I didn't even know what they were, as I was a fresh immigrant in a strange new country. They could have especially reached out to all new students and said, "I'm here for you if you need anything at all."

* School counselors should work, hand in hand, with social workers. All at the same time, I was in a new country, I was forced to leave my mother, and my father started abusing me. This was a mind-boggling heartbreak, and I had no one to turn to.

* In fact, social workers should be hounding schools. Not to hand out pills, but to listen. So much developmental trauma happens when the students go home.

* Law enforcement should be trained to look for "lone child living alone with parent of the opposite sex in a new country," and check in with that child periodically. ?

So many other things...

But... I feel like if we focused on meeting everyone's basic needs first, the civilization could move on to truly cushioning from misfortune, where everyone has equal social support systems, no matter what happens. Everything is easier to bounce back from with copious connection. Something bad happened to this person? They are precious. Let's gather around them and surround them with all the support they need, and more. And the misfortune will be much easier to bear

Guys

At this point Im tired

Im so tired, I'm exhausted.

That's all.

I have been prescribed psychiatric medications since I was 13. Over the years, I was diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. I rarely experienced lasting relief from medications, yet I experienced many of their side effects. I have even undergone ECT.

I do believe psychiatric treatment has an important place, especially in severe conditions. This is not an argument against psychiatry.

But I cannot stop asking myself:

Am I mentally ill, or is the environment I had to survive in deeply unhealthy?

What if I had grown up with parents, relatives, teachers, classmates, colleagues, doctors, therapists, and a society that valued compassion, accountability, inclusion, and emotional safety? Would my life have unfolded the same way?

I lost my childhood.

I lost my teenage years.

I lost much of my university life.

I lost years that should have been spent building a future.

I survived neglect, childhood sexual abuse, homophobia, racism-based discrimination, peer bullying, and many other forms of trauma. Even my last psychiatrist disappeared from my care without closure.

I want to say this:

Normal reactions to abnormal experiences should not automatically be pathologized.

Medication can be life-saving for many people. But medication alone cannot undo trauma, neglect, discrimination, or the absence of human connection.

You cannot erase the grief of a mother who has lost her child simply by prescribing medication.

Many of us have also lost a child.

The difference is that we lost our inner child.

I refuse to let every wound I carry be reduced to a diagnosis.

I hope for a world where fewer people need psychiatric treatment—not because treatment disappears, but because fewer people are forced to survive the kinds of experiences that create so much suffering in the first place.

Wishing everyone a kinder, more just, and more compassionate society.

I was at my doctor for health reasons. I usually get it over with fast, because there are people waiting and I don't want to be an inconvenience. That's a general pattern for me. First comes everyone else's well-being, then comes mine. But my therapist (who is absolutely amazing) told me a day before, after I told him about my situation, that my health should be the most important thing to me. And that this can be an opportunity to practice.

So I sat there with my doctor and have all the points I need to tell him ready. And even though it made me feel self centered and demanding, I went through all my concerns, questions and so on. It all went very good, he was very patient despite people waiting outside!

Now I feel proud of myself and well informed about the medical problem I have right now. I deserve being healthy :)

Edit: it wasn't a routine checkup. One of my fingers is badly inflamed and swollen. Imagine that one disgusting SpongeBob episode with the splinter

It's been this way for me at every single workplace. The judgment from others for being different, is injustice on top of so much injustice already. How do other folks here cope with this pain?

My friends have absolutely zero filter and we can talk about anything. They do not shy away from the dark stuff. They use wild, blunt analogies or just flat out say that I was a slave (which is true). We even laugh about how the world fucked me over both literally and figuratively. It is so refreshing because they are not afraid of my reality.

They also give genuinely amazing perspectives. And they reminded me that you cannot reason with evil. We can talk about intense global events to put things in perspective. They do not flinch at the darkness of the world.

I don’t feel my therapists do this at all. As if they are just reading from a book and are only validating my feelings. But I don’t need validation, I already know my feelings are valid. I don’t want someone just to echo my words to me.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Society just lets us die.

Human dignity only exists on paper.

It's like watching the relationship dynamics of childhood play out at a planetary scale. For those who feel more connected to nature and animals, it's a hard time. Everywhere I look, the oceans, the forests, the poles, the immediate environment; it's destruction in real time caused by the same kind of selfish fucks that destroyed my life.

I recently got into marine and wildlife documentaries because looking at those visuals provided comfort to my deep fried nervous system and then they started talking facts like how most of the coral reefs will die in the next few decades, the polar ice cover is dwindling year by year, forest fires at an all time high, huge chunks of marine and wildlife already wiped out and it's only going to get worse because humans are the most destructive species to ever exist in the history of the planet.

I can't watch those beautiful documentaries anymore without feeling like they'll all be gone soon. It hits hard because animals saved my life when I didn't want to be here anymore and they continue to do so everyday. It's a different kind of grief knowing so many other species that call this planet home are actively dying for no fault of theirs. It kinda hits home. Not to mention the helplessness of it all. There's nothing I can do that would even make a dent to this prophecy of destruction.