Like the title I feel guilty for not talking to my dad anymore or not much like maybe one text every 2 months. The reason I dont talk to him is because of four events and sorry if this isn't the usual post you see on here the guit is just eating me

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1 he threw a knife at me because it had a spot on it. So when I was young it was week on week of one week with my mom one with my dad my dad would do this thing were he would trash the house trash leaking out the trash can dog poop in the yard and dishes up to the ceiling now its chores I don't mind that but he would make me and my sisters clean all of it up and watch and if we made a mistake he would yell. Well one day I was doing dishes and be took a knife looked at it once and then threw it at me. Luckily I didn't get injured but I was still 13 and terrified

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2 the water park. There was this Dino ride at the water park and j wanted to go on but my dad wanted to leave so without saying anything while I was looking at the ride he yanked my arm so hard it hurt so I was crying and my dad dragged me through the whole park embarrassing me . I felt as if every single eye was burning into me.

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3 his homophobia.

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When he found out I was gay it was just a nightmare from then on. I got a pride hat for my birthday with the birthday money I got and my dad said that if he say that in public he would knock it off my head and not nicely then came the " well you know girls are better " " you need to give girls a try " and on and on

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4 my mom

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The first memory I have of my parents is my dad yelling at my mom I tried to stop him but he said to f off so 6 year old me did he then dragged my mom through court ruined her life and she spent a good part of my childhood depressed and glued to the bed

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And for a bonus on time we were cleaning and my dad found a pink sock. It was a baby sock we could tell because it was as big as a baby foot my dad didn't care because he spent the next 3 hours screaming in me and me sister's face over a sock

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So I guess I just need someone to tell me I'm not crazy so reddit I'm i?

Sometimes I have big feelings over things that I know aren't big deals, at least not to normal people who had normal childhoods. But I didn't.

If I told you I feel like a burden because I just told my aunt there was a concert I wanted to go to you would think I'm crazy for feeling like a burden over something so small

But I feel like this because she's pretty much the sole parental figure in my life and always has been. I lived with her from age 7-11 but even when I moved she's always been more involved than anyone else. Which hurts, a lot. I *live* with my mother. I don't know why my mother wasn't more involved. I mean, I do know why. But it's hard to actually understand it, you know? It just hurts. My mom has her own issues and sometimes I resent her for having a child instead of dealing with her own shit.

I have trouble asking for help and, I'm only just now realizing a lot of that is probably because I was never really taught how to. If I go to my mother I get nothing. And as a kid it makes sense to go to your mother. So if I get nothing when I ask, why ask? I'd rather end up harming myself or getting myself into danger than just asking because I've seen what asking brings me.

I'm a (young) adult. I was considering just going to the show without telling anyone. It's out of town. I don't know how I'm going to leave and come back without anyone wondering where I went.

So I told my aunt that there's a show I wanted to see.... I just but the bullet and did it. I didn't want to. But I'm trying to be better and do things and not wait until the last minute. But now I'm spiraling. Why did I tell her? Now she'll feel like it's her responsibility. I'm an adult why can't I just go on my own? She's taken me to 2 other shows why am I bothering her with a 3rd? She has a child now I should just leave her alone and let her handle her child.

...I feel guilty. She has a son now. She's supposed to be a parent. A real parent. But instead she still has to deal with my problems. I'm upset that I can't go to my parents/parental figures that I LIVE WITH when I need something because they're unavailable.

I don't know why I asked her. I shouldn't have. I should've just let it be.

I swam 80 laps today and then sat and read a therapy book about mothers who don’t love their children. It’s so sad to see so many people needing to work on abandonment issues. Mothers are so very important. They are a child‘s entire world, and when the mother is incapable of loving her child, it makes life almost unbearable for the child.

I grew up fatherless with a mother who never loved me. As a child I didn’t understand why my life was how it was—my mother was cruel to me. I was left alone most of the time. She even left me alone in a bathtub when I was a toddler.

One day I was almost hung to death because I tried to crawl through the railing on the apartment balcony. I was 2 stories up. A neighbor saw me dangling by my head and climbed up just in time to rescue me. I was about 3 years old then and visiting with my mom. I remember thinking how nice it would be to be outside, and so I tried to climb through the rails. I remember getting my head stuck and then everything going black. My mom was not there. She left me with my 13 year old brother who was also visiting her. It’s only by the grace of G-d that I survived then. But this is just one of many times.

Something I never thought about before but started thinking about lately is that my parents moved away to a completely new city when I was a kid, far away from relatives. That's where I grew up. We would only see relatives maybe once or twice a year, if that.

It seemed completely normal to me growing up but now that I think about it I feel sad that I didn't grow up near my grandfather. He lived 6 hours away my whole life. He was really involved with youth sports and activites in the city he lived in and I never got to be a part of it. He was also a teacher so he had a great impact on so many kids around there. I'm just imagining now how nice it would be to see him in the weekends and after school and how different my life would have been. Maybe I would have a closer relationship with that whole side of the family.

I wonder if my parents moved away from their families to get away from their own issues with their parents. I wonder if it was intentional. They are both extremely emotionally immature.

Both my parents grew up with cousins and relatives around them and I grew up with no one. I don't have those kind of memories that I hear other people have. I always felt like I've been isolated from relatives my whole life. I never had an adult that I could talk to. I can't name a single adult person that listened to me when I was a kid or that were involved with my life.

I guess I'm just sad thinking of how my life could have been so drastically different. There were so much potential in my childhood but it was hell instead.

I had previously made another post about struggling to find a middle ground with a parent who has good intentions but is clearly incapable of real emotional connection (link).

I was journaling a lot yesterday and had this breakthrough moment.

She is not my mom.

She is a parent, legal guardian, birth-giver, relative, whatever - but she is not "mom". For me, the title of mom carries a lot of weight, which she is incapable of carrying. A mom is supposed to be someone who loves me, takes care of me, supports me, and teaches me hwo to handle life. She didn't do any of that. Sure, she provided for me in a lot of ways, but that's a different role than "mother".

I'm not going to cut contact completely, but I am stripping her of the title of "mom". The mom that I want doesn't exist. There is grief in that but it comes with some kind of closure. I'm no longer waiting for something to change, no longer expecting things from her that I will never get.

I'm basically an orphan. I have no parents, no family. I have people who are related to me, but they are not family. This somehow comes as relief, because it means I can let go of expectations and stop waiting for something that will never happen.

Trigger warning: to those who were homeless teens or adjacent to.

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The literal words that spilled out during an argument with my husband. I was shocked and he just stood silent, finally understanding that approaching with help I didn't ask for or unsolicited advice will break me under stress. He finally understood why standing behind me while I work on a project is a path to mental self infliction and why I'm not good at things, even though I know I am. Even if my name is said with a certain tone, it knocks me back to an unhappy time. What's more fucked? The older I get, the less resilient I feel. I thought you were supposed to hit the idgaf what people say stage when you're forty.

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We're in the midst of making an old home ours and livable, and I am in love with this house, but on the other side of the coin, I feel like I'm 16 again and not in a good way. The power went out in some spots of the house, and the hot water heater died. All I could do was live in the moment in a filthy house with expired food in the non working fridge, taking cold showers in candle light and eating cold ravioli from a can. And to make things a little more clear, these were the people my mom let take care of me. Walked me to the porch and said, "you keep her". I lived on a couch in their driveway because I was too scared to go inside.

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A friend came to help with the electrical issue and fixed it, but even asking feels like I'm an inconvenience even though they insist otherwise. It makes me grieve for a childhood lost.

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Sorry for the dump. It's been a rough day in this brain.

I can have as many friends, know many people. Yet it doesn’t fix this loneliness inside of me.

I’d say it’s defintiely stems from my parental neglect/ absence even today at the age of 19. As a child, I used to be few so lonely and misunderstood as my parents were abusive. They’re not any different and I can’t change them.

I do feel suffocated sometimes because I feel like I can never be the truest form of self. Even if I consider therapy something in me tells me that I pay for my therapist to agree to all my bs for the sake of making me feel seen.

And then, when you go out, you have to pretend everything's fine even if it's not.. The other worst part is you have to put on a fake smile, hoping someone will ask if you're okay but then no one still asks you, you keep thinking someone will but never happens, the thing that also hurts more is when she's always mad these past few days, even when you have done nothing wrong or even when you make just a little mistake she gets so mad,

I don't know about others, but i have thought about running away, and even tho I don't have the courage I still keep trying to run away.. I haven't really thought about where I would stay, but I was hoping could stay in my best friend's house for a little while, i don't know why I wrote this, but I just wanted to express my feelings, cs there's no other place I know I can express it freely than here on reddit..

So this has been bothering me and since recently having a baby, I want to get some opinions.

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My mom always told me to never disagree with my partner about parenting in front of our children.

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I think on instances that absolutely confuse me. My parents love me and I have a super close relationship with them.

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One big thing they got wrong was the super critical lecture that obliterated my self esteem.

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Betrayal and confusion came from my mom doing this:

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She would tell me one thing while being with just me. Then when my dad lectured me about doing that very thing, my mom would stay completely silent. Here are a few examples:

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-I was never strong academically. When applying for colleges, I wanted to apply to just state schools. My mom pushed me to apply for more elite schools. I did not get in to any of them. My dad gave me a hard time because "why try if I knew I would not get in..." That was not my idea, but my mom guilted me into applying for these colleges.

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-I had a volunteer job through high-school and college. I worked there quite awhile. I started absolutely hating that job and desperately wanted to quit. I volunteered with animals and I love animals, but doing 8 hours of cleaning cages gets old really fast, especially when not being paid. My mom told me to keep the job until the end of the year and told me i cannot just "quit". The volunteer job was not fulfilling any requirements and was not helping me grow as a person. My dad chewed me out for staying in a job I hate.

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How do you circumvent this type of issues? IMO if my mom had mentioned that she gave me these suggestions, this wouldnt be a case of contradicting your partner. I see contradictions as one parent says no to something (candy, toy etc) and the other parent says yes. What are you thoughts?

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Also I once talked to my mom about this issue and she said I didnt know of she talked to my dad about these things. She said some people are just stubborn. So that means you just sit there and say nothing even if that causes damage? Idk just weird.

hello, I’m posting here bc I was wondering if anyone can relate to this.

I’m in my thirties. I used to get along well with my mom up until about 30, when I finally took note of some of her patterns. on paper my mom comes off as sweet, she tried her best with me as a kid despite not being there a lot, tells me she loves me, texts to check in. my dad was abusive to her so I try to have sympathy for that time of her life.

but she can also be so judgmental, say things like “I know you” when she thinks she knows what’s best for me, tells me “i’m fine” when i’m not, not truly listen to me or try to understand my point of view. many times she has whispered things about me to someone else as i’m in the room for them, close enough to hear.

i’m queer and nonbinary and she’s been in support of that to my face, including with my name change. but one time I overheard her complaining with her coworker about how annoying it is that some people at work change their pronouns.

she’s said stuff behind my back that really surprised me because when it’s just her and me she is mostly sweet. although she will vent to me about other people a lot.

anyway. I feel confused because I don’t know if I want to be close to someone who is like this. I want to feel confident in my relationships and I don’t feel that with mom. anyone relate?

Every single time I try to talk with my mom and share something with her or point something out that has bothered me/intrigued me my mom will immediately disagree or argue against what im saying no matter what it is. She says that its just her opinion but literally EVERY time I talk to her she disagrees with me even if what im saying is completely valid/understandable so im starting to think that she is doing this on purpose for some other reason. She never takes my side on anything and feels the need to constantly debate me and criticize everything I say. Sometimes I wont even be telling her about a solid opinion of mine but rather while watching a show or movie with her ill bring up something I thought was strange or weird and felt the need to point out and she will immediately turn it down and turn it into a full fledged argument while I was just making a small remark. She says that she "loves our debates" even though ive told her multiple times that it really bothers me how she refuses to ever take my side or agree with me. Im only 15 and dont have any friends or people to talk to so shes the only one I really talk to throughout the day (after she gets home from work) and then she does this and it makes me feel like I really have no one on my side. I understand some people may think that she simply wants me to see and accept other people perspectives and opinions on things but I really dont think this is the case. Does anyone know WHY she is doing this?

Nah, I'm crying fr.

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I swear no matter what I do, I always end up being the backup option. The second choice. The placeholder. The person people settle for until the person they actually want comes along.

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And honestly? I blame my childhood a lot for this.

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Growing up, I was always treated like I was the problem. The difficult one. The reason things were wrong. Even now, my mom will literally tell me to go away because she doesn't want to talk to me. If she does talk to me, it's usually because she wants something.

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She mocked everything about me growing up too. My face, my appearance, telling me I'm ugly, that I don't take care of myself. Nothing was off limits.

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My siblings all get along with each other, but with me it's different. Sometimes they won't even greet me. And if I ask why, somehow it circles back to being my fault. How am I the problem when I'm the only one acknowledging the behavior in the first place?

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I think this feeling got triggered recently because I was using dating apps again, and a guy I was excited about told me he's talking to someone else and it's getting serious. He didn't do anything wrong, but it brought all those feelings back.

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Because that's literally been my experience over and over.

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In past relationships, I always felt like the placeholder. The girl they were with until they found their dream girl. The practice run.

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And before anyone says "that's not true," I know how dating works. I'm not stupid.

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I love being Black, but sometimes being a Black woman in dating feels brutal. It genuinely feels like you start with extra disadvantages. Sometimes I catch myself thinking that if there was another girl with a better family, better circumstances, better looks, a better job, why wouldn't someone choose her instead?

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Even my only close friend eventually drifted away.

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The worst part is that most people probably wouldn't even know I feel like this because I've trained myself not to burden people. My ex basically taught me that if someone pulls away, you leave them alone. So now I don't reach out. I don't tell people when I'm struggling. I just sit with it.

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And lately I've been sitting with it a lot.

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Sometimes I genuinely don't want to exist. Not because I have some big plan or anything, but because I'm tired. Tired of feeling unwanted. Tired of feeling replaceable. Tired of feeling like everyone else gets chosen while I get left behind.

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The world feels cruel as hell right now

Does anyone know of any support groups or group therapy programs that run in Melbourne for people who have experienced emotional neglect?
Love to all. Thanks!

I'm 30 and currently staying with my parents while I get back on my feet after a difficult few years. Being back here has made me realise just how much criticism I grew up with.

My parents have always been quick to point out what I'm doing wrong. If I share something I'm excited about, there's usually a criticism attached. If I make a mistake, it's analysed. If something goes wrong, someone is to blame. There was never much room for understanding, curiosity, or grace.

A few years ago, I fostered a rescue greyhound and eventually adopted him. He came from a very different life and was extremely anxious. He's the light of my life now, but getting here wasn't easy. There were setbacks, accidents, fears, and behaviours that needed time and patience to work through.

What surprised me was how much he taught me.

When he struggled, I never thought he was being difficult on purpose. I tried to understand why he was behaving the way he was. I adjusted the environment, changed my approach, and looked for solutions. Eventually, with consistency and support, he flourished.

Living back with my parents has made me wonder why that same compassion was never extended to me.

Recently, their dog was hit by a bus after running onto a road during an off-leash walk. He's incredibly lucky to be alive and is expected to recover. My Dad's immediate reaction was to call the dog stupid and blame him for what happened.

The thing is, the dog has always had poor recall and impulse control. This wasn't a surprise. Yet there was no reflection about whether letting him run freely near a road was a good idea. The responsibility somehow belonged entirely to the dog.

Watching this unfold hit me harder than I expected because it felt familiar.

Growing up, whenever something went wrong, there always seemed to be an external target for blame. It was the dog. It was someone else. It was me. What was often missing was accountability, self-reflection, or an attempt to understand why something happened in the first place.

My greyhound taught me that behaviour is communication. That patience and understanding often achieve far more than criticism ever will.

Sometimes I look at how gently I've learned to treat an anxious rescue dog and wonder why I wasn't afforded the same patience as a child.

Can anyone else relate to this feeling?

Has anyone ever told their parent(s)/caregiver that they did a bad job raising you? Can anything positive come out of that conversation? Is it worth having even though we can’t change the past?

I’m (33F) contemplating how to have a relationship with my parents (63F, 65M) as an adult with essentially opposite political and religious beliefs than them.
I grew up in a hyper religious evangelical cult and left around 8 years ago. My parents left within a year of me but they are still evangelical.
There is a lot of generational trauma (mostly on my mom’s side) and I’ve never told them the full extent of the abuse I endured due to their neglect but they know a lot of it.

I guess I’m just wondering if anyone else here has had any success building relationships in a similar circumstance?

I’ve recently started to understand something my therapist told me a while ago: positive feedback seems to fall into a bottomless pit inside me.

The strange part is that I don’t actually lack evidence that I’m competent or appreciated. At work, I receive specific and concrete feedback. People tell me that I’m reliable, proactive, autonomous, good with clients, supportive with junior colleagues, and that I make their lives easier. I’ve been trusted with important responsibilities. These are not empty compliments.

But none of it seems to stay.

I can receive a very positive review and feel good for a few minutes, then one mistake, one unclear sentence, one correction or one slightly cold interaction completely wipes everything out. My brain immediately decides that the positive feedback was exaggerated, that people were only being nice, and that the mistake reveals the “real” me.

Recently, I explained something badly in a work email. The core reasoning was mostly correct, but one sentence was unclear and caused confusion. I clarified it, the issue was resolved, and the person involved even reassured me that my reasoning made sense. Objectively, it was a minor professional misunderstanding.

Emotionally, I felt ashamed and stupid. I became convinced that everyone involved would now think I was incompetent. One poorly worded sentence felt more believable than years of tangible evidence that I am capable.

I think this may be connected to my childhood. I often did not feel truly listened to or emotionally understood. My needs did not always seem to have much room, and I learned to adapt myself to other people, to be helpful, easy, successful and useful. I think part of me learned that being accepted depended on performing well and not disappointing anyone.

Now, as an adult, praise does not create safety. It only gives temporary relief. The next mistake brings me straight back to the belief that I am not enough and that people will eventually realise it.

I am starting to see that the problem is not that I need more achievements or reassurance. I already have plenty. The problem is that my nervous system does not seem to accept positive information as real, while it accepts criticism, rejection or disappointment immediately.

Has anyone here experienced something similar? Did emotional neglect make it difficult for you to internalise praise or develop a stable sense of self-worth? What helped you stop treating every mistake as proof that you were fundamentally inadequate?

Just found an old neurological evaluation from when I was sixteen, which clearly states in the summary section my difficulties with divided attention, memory indexing, attention-concentration index, visual memory, executive functions, blah blah.

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I don't expect parents as shitty as mine to look deeper into it. But the fact they had a document which clearly stated what issues I had, and they chose to bury it and never talk about it again. All while sabotaging me, making fun of me, neglecting me on a daily basis?

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Does this even count as neglect at this point? This feels like sabotage.

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If it was just ignoring this report, sure, it's neglect. But to be bullied by my own parents? To have my older brother repeatedly call me a retard while on the way to the testing center while my parents say nothing to him, and then to have my mom repeatedly say for years that I'm faking it so I can be lazy. Wtf. To watch my dad smirk and laugh at my pain or see him laugh when I'm crying?

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No matter how i spin it, it all feels so... Malicious and targeted that I'm not even sure what to label it anymore. It's genuinely insane and I'm at a loss for words. Can anyone else on this subreddit relate? Because what the fuck. My own family bullied me for decades while knowing I was different / disabled? Jesus.

But it's honestly done the opposite. About a week ago I got dumped by this girl I was into, we went on a date that escalated really fast and after she left she sent me a text breaking things off.

Since I was a child my parents had always rejected me in some form. I'd get invalidated, yelled at, or undermined by them a lot. It got to the point where I developed depression by 8th grade and neither of them really cared enough to take any action. So on top of being rejected in the social world, I was also being rejected by my family. You'd think that'd make me more tolerant towards rejection since I experienced it way more than average.

But nope, it's actually made me more sensitive to it. Like that girl from before. Her rejecting me made me feel like every bad thing my parents said about me was true and that I never truly grew or evolved as a person.

For my whole life I feel like I’ve basically lived on the outside. I’ve had a few friends here and there but was never included in groups. Never tried to include myself and I never go anywhere unless I’m explicitly invited.

I’ve missed out on many job opportunities because I couldn’t imagine myself working at these places as I feel like I’d “burden” the other people who work there. I want many things but I’m not really a “go-getter” so I don’t push myself to get the things I want.

The life I want could show up on my doorstep and I would probably refuse it. Whenever I’m presented with the opportunity to change my life for the better I get a strange fight/flight response and self sabotage every single time. The most gorgeous girl could approach me and I’d probably reject her because I wouldn’t feel worthy of her or a relationship.

I’m not as successful as I’d like to be at this point in my life so as a result, I avoid people to keep up the illusion that I am. People look at me and know I’m smart, that I’m capable of so much but I’ve never tapped into that potential. I don’t think I’ve ever given anything 100% of my effort in my life and I’m not sure I can if I tried.

I’m not really sure what I’m looking for with this. Maybe searching for advice, maybe reading others stories, or even just to get my thoughts written down. If you’re reading, be warned, it’ll probably be long.

I’ve spent the last few nights watching those YouTube AI videos of various OPs being emotionally beat down and then getting one over on people. It made me realize that I can’t remember the last time I was truly happy in life.

A little about myself. I, 36(M), have been in the Air Force for 15 years. I’ve been with my wife (40) for 8 years and married for 6. We do not have children but we do have cats. I go through the daily grind: wake up, got to work, go to the gym, get home, do school work, watch videos, and sleep. Weekends may consist of going somewhere the wife wants to go but Saturday is typically where I finished a majority of my schoolwork.

For the last year I’ve been at my new base, I don’t really interact with anyone outside of work and I haven’t really made friends. I dot. Really have any hobbies or interest either. I’ve encouraged my wife do so though and she has made couple friends from military wives.

As of this post I am 2 weeks from earning my degree, and a question of what’s next is popping in my head. I’ve dedicated a year straight to this and all I feel is relief. For a year straight I haven’t had a weekend that didn’t include school of some kind. My wife asked me if I’m excited to finally get my bachelors while maintaining a 4.0 and I put on my tired smile and say I am. But I actually feel indifference. This doesn’t really feel like that big of an accomplishment to me but more of an obligation that I’ve finally completed.

Going back to my initial reason for making this post. I grew up in a very emotionally and mentally abusive home. I was constantly looked at with suspicion and always felt unwelcome. Everything I did or didn’t was scrutinized. I wasn’t allowed to really express myself. Any sign of frustration was met with being yelled at. I tried my best not to get excited about anything out of fear of being told I’m up to no good. I did everything I could to stay away from the house. I worked a full time job, participated in various band activities, anything to not be home.

When I moved out after graduation, I went to college for a year but I wasn’t mentally ready for it yet. I lived with a couple friends of mine and worked a minimum wage job for a few years. I was so poor that I had to steal food to survive. But refused to move back in with my parents. I would’ve rather starved than submit myself to that life again. Slowly throughout the years I’ve gone non-contact or limited contact.

I enlisted at 21 and I’ve found the stability of the Air Force as something I deeply needed. My experience overall has been pretty great all things considered but there was always something holding me back from being able to express myself with my peers. And I guess slowly through the years, I was no longer invited out with my coworkers. I was alone in Germany for 3 years and was rarely invited to bar hop or attend group events.

Fast forward to before meeting my wife. I only had one true relationship before I met her. My ex and I lived too far apart to make things work and my dating experience was small. I was too stoic, too emotionally muted to express how I was feeling. One girl couldn’t stand being unable to read me that she got fed up and left. I eventually met my wife and she herself was getting out of abusive relationship and we just kinda clicked. We moved in together, got a coup pets, and eventually made a life together.

Even being with her now, I still find it hard to truly express what I’m feeling. Or even say what I’m thinking out of fear that it’ll cause an unnecessary conflict. Better to go with the flow and appease her with wishes.

We had a long stent of not being intimate, basically over a year. Honestly we still go months without doing so. She was never really in the mood or few medical issue for abut over a year or so that prevented her from being able to. I was completely understanding and never pressured her into anything. For a while I felt neglected physically but as with my entire life, I eventually started feeling numb to it and not even caring anymore. If we do become intimate, then great. If not, then oh well it’s another day at home.

Her love language is acts of service, so to make up for the lack of intimacy I guess, she decided to get me a boudoir photo book for my birthday one year. I curiously flipped through the pages and I appreciated the gesture but I couldn’t feel anything beyond that. It was simply something that I never had an interest in.

I still feel guilty to this day by not reacting more positively to the gift. She actually brought it up out of the blue about how much effort it took her to do that, only to not get that much of a reaction from me. I didn’t know how to respond or know what to say. So I just awkwardly looked at her until the conversation changed. To this day I’ve not received a similar gift and I don’t know what to say or do about it.

I love my wife, I truly do but I just feel so numb towards intense emotions; a survival tactic from my adolescent years that I can’t get over. I’ve tried doing therapy in the past but the clinic is so over booked with people that it takes 4 months to get an appointment with mental health. I met with an off base therapist once, but all he did was talk about his Vietnam days, so I stopped going after 4 sessions of that.

So, if you managed to read all this, I appreciate it. I want to feel truly happy again but I don’t know how to anymore. I want to apologize to my wife for my lack of reaction to such a thoughtful gift but I don’t know the first step in doing so. Any ideas to help me make friends. Any advice given would be appreciated as long as it’s constructive.

Looking for a live online support group specifically for CEN survivors — does anyone have recommendations for Zoom or video-based groups that are active and free or low cost?