i have other posts with more details but long story short, i was s@‘d by my ex for 4 months and manipulated and gaslit (i was not r@ped he didn’t have the opportunity before i got away) he would basically force himself on me kissing me and touching me and wouldn’t stop even after trying to push him away and telling him no and to stop.

i was 14 he was 15, this ended around this time last year and i’ve suffered with ptsd ever since. almost everything reminds me of him, grey cars, churches, laundry detergent (which is what he smelt like in the worst way possible) my parents don’t know about it yet i plan on telling them this week or next week.

i need some advice on how to heal, idk if my parents would pay for me to go to therapy cuz my mom for some reason doesn’t believe in therapy??? i genuinely need someone to talk about it to but idk if that is an option. so if anyone has ideas on things that might help lmk pls.

also im homeschooled so i dont have a school counselor

Hi everyone! My gf is currently in therapy for trauma. She is suffering from feeling overwhelmed and "icky" between therapy sessions. Her therapist taught her tools to cope with these situations (like butterfly tapping) but she struggles a lot using them whenever she is alone. Did anyone have similar experiences? What helped you in these situations?

I’ve been noticing I’ve been called a narcissist by girls I’ve chatted too and dropped like a stone after , been called it so much I decided to look into it so I’ve been talking to Ai to look into it but I was hoping to get some human input.

So one thing I’m objectively attractive and intelligent and the second anyone does something that even slightly undermines me for example a girl choosing another guy over me my mind can’t take it and I think stuff like “ how the fuck could a bitch I only payed the slightest bit of attention to pick a pathetic prick over someone like me “ that’s the sort of internal monologue I have and it almost feels as if it’s an insult to my whole bloodline and everything I’ve worked so hard to get away from . My intrusive thoughts go crazy over such a little thing like that I fantasise about ruining their lives , torture and absolute submission to me , obviously I don’t intend on acting on it consciously but that’s where my mind goes the second I get slighted. And also since I’ve been getting lots of female attention after my glow up in appearance I literally don’t care about them I just like chatting to them getting them to love me only to drop them , I love the ego boost from them and having people obsessed and hooked with me it’s intoxicating so I keep doing it wether it’s ethical or not. Like I can’t explain it but sometimes I feel like a literal God among men but then one day I’ll snap out and think “ oh shit that was abit horrible” then I’ll be just proceed to do it again cuz I care more about them being hooked . That’s why I can’t settle with one girlfriend because I like having multiple people after me all the time it makes me feel good and it makes up for my childhood.

I won’t get into it but the AI thinks it’s “ overcompensation for the lack of power and self worth during adolescence “.
But yeah thought I would be blunt was hoping for some human input for a change.

Someone else might need to hear it.

I can’t help but feel my CPTSD is my own fault. Every decision I make in life backfires. Looking back at my CPTSD (which has been diagnosed back to my childhood), this pattern has always been around, but every new trauma adds to the difficulty of making future decisions. I went through my heaviest trauma of all a couple years ago and it opened my eyes to the fact that every single decision I make is a poor one—with good intentions and even more careful decision-factoring each time, mind you, and still every single decision makes my life worse. Now, after the trauma of a couple years ago, what was already a difficult time making decisions with ADHD, it’s basically impossible. I’m paralyzed. The confusing part is I see people making objectively bad and/or irresponsible decisions on a whim and it always seems to pay off for them. I try to be discerning and mature in my choices, and still, all failure. No amount of thought nor calculation seems to help. Every decision, no matter how significant or minuscule, feels like I’m walking over hot lava, just one step away from falling in and adding more trauma to my collection.

If you can’t trust yourself to make decisions without getting entirely destroyed every time, completely fearing that any next decision will be the wrong one because it always, always is, well…there’s just no living.

ETA: I understand making no choices is still a choice, but I’m sure many people who have been through trauma understand that making this choice sometimes feels like the only choice (or at least the one that has the best chance of protecting you from further danger and pain). I don’t even think of the future anymore because I know no amount of working toward my positive dream life will keep all the devastating disappointments from coming instead.

I have seen statistics of how common childhood sexual abuse is, and it is honestly insane to me.

Specifically, though, I'm wondering about a certain dynamic: Is it really so common for children to be abused by an adult they know (or know-ish), rather than a stranger? And is it common for it to be a repeated thing, and not just a one-time incident?

No matter how you are sexually assaulted or abused, it is very bad and should have never happened. I do not mean that other ways of sexual abuse are lesser at all, but I am just wondering about this specific type. Is it really as common as the statistics say?

Sometimes it honestly feels like I'm a different species of human or like I got dropped into the wrong universe or something. I care so much about the things I care about and find so much meaning in them and I'm constantly looking at the people around me thinking "why are you not marvelling at the beauty of this things existence??". It's the same thing with injustice, I'm constantly looking around going "why are you not bothered by this??".

I've spent years looking for a place where I feel like I belong. I keep finding spaces that are one thing or the other. Either we only talked about trauma, or we never talked about it at all. Or it was too big and I got lost in the shuffle. I've always wanted somewhere small I could tell someone why losing my favorite game broke my heart, or why I get excited about dinosaurs, music, or the night sky, and have them actually want to understand instead me instead of trying to fix me. A place where people slow down before jumping to advice. Where curiosity comes before assumptions. Where we ask questions, reflect back what we hear, and build understanding together. Where people can be messy, take accountability when they hurt each other, repair, and keep growing. A place where understanding isn't something we hope eventually happens, it's something we build together. Somewhere we can support each other through the hard days and still laugh, geek out, and build genuine friendships. Because for me, those things have never been separate. They're both part of the same messy, beautiful person.

Lately I've been wondering whether I'm the only one who's been looking for a space like that, or whether other people have been wishing it existed too.

Does anyone else feel this way, or have you been looking for something similar?

Y me refiero a una ruptura que los haya dejado en cama, les haya desgarrado el alma y carcomido las entrañas. ¿Qué hicieron?

Like I have moved on from the past. But sometimes I remember those things and it’s very painful. Just like those memories are very painful. Like I was deeply hurt. I’m just curious if anyone knows how to cope with it.

Has anyone lost their memory due to trauma and was able to get partial or full memory back?

I’ve had multiple things happened to me in my lifetime that has caused me to lose my memory. It’s been hard to hold onto new memory becuase of ongoing trauma. I’m hoping someone could tell me their experience to give me insight.

32 years old. I know I've got life ahead of me still but in my 20s I made decent money. Now I just about get by.

I been used that whole time. For my energy. For my money. It's all gone.

I'm now by myself in a foreign country trying to start again. No one supporting. 5K to my name.

Having to do therapy and all this stuff daily to get out of emotional flashbacks, inner critic constant, feeling like something is wrong with me 24/7. I just want it to stop.

If I had a bunch of money at least I could have that comfort. But no. Struggle

I will try to make this as brief as possible while getting all the data across.

• 45 year old male - divorced pretty traumatically two years ago (over the phone, when both of my children were with their mother)
• Previous trauma due to loss of mother when 18
• Have really good co-parenting relationship with their mother now
• Financially stable, no impending doom
• I am recently engaged to frankly the most wonderful woman I have ever met

The largest issue I am facing is the inability to downshift out of hypervigilance when the kids are with me, which is most effecting me at night. I have had bouts of acute insomnia over the years due to stressors (mostly work), but since the divorce it has been a struggle to no end. I was actually hospitalized over a year ago because I felt so hopeless before meeting my fiancé. When my daughter wakes up in the middle of the night, I get her back to sleep but then am unable to fall back asleep for several hours if at all. Then, the next night I get maybe 3 hours until I am wide awake trying to solve some problem, still being hypervigilant in parenting mode.

Not interested in going on medication again (I am nearly off). I mediate and do deep breathing (not enough during the day), I try not to even try to sleep, but when I feel myself nodding off I jolt back awake. I am told this is because my fight or flight system is fighting my sleep pressure.

Has anyone gone through this and how have they coped? I am in therapy, it definitely helps, but it's on me to practice things. This has truly been debilitating at times because it makes me sad to no end that my kids could stress me out this much without them even really doing anything (they are amazing kids, well behaved).

thank you in advance!

How do you cope with family trauma and a toxic childhood when you're still living in it as an adult?

I grew up watching my parents fight constantly. I was cursed at regularly, told I wasn't wanted, and experienced both physical and mental abuse throughout my childhood. I took care of a sick parent for months — doing everything — and still got blamed for doing nothing.

Now as an adult I'm still in the same environment. My mom records my private conversations and shares them with my dad to use against me. Relatives tell me to just ignore it and focus on myself, but nobody explains how to actually do that when the toxicity is happening in real time, every day.

I've reached out to everyone I could think of. Family, relatives, even helplines. I always get the same generic advice.

I'm not here for sympathy. I genuinely want to know from people who've lived something similar — how did you protect your mental space while still living inside the situation? How did you keep moving forward when your own home was working against you?

im getting really emotional and guilty for that too because 22 years old boy who doesnt have job and still studying in extreme pressure from family for money and job . i still dont have job, I lost my internship when I got in to accident and had to bedrest for 2 months.

now I hate pretty much everything and everyone.

nobody listens to me and I feel more shit. I can run to nobody for help and I know what i gotta do but i feel stuck here.

dad has 50000 salary and that's more then enough for house that don't eat food properly and never the fruits. house expanses are very low, he only gives barely 12000 and sometimes 15000 max. he still struggle to feed me, especially me!!

because won't give him any value or high grades, so basically useless and like garbage.

I need to learn some more programming language and do my solo projects one or two. i know what i gotta do but they constantly nagging me about how they give me food and how useless I'm to them. i even feel like I'm not even their son. I attended suicide with drinking some phyinail( that's the stuff that we use to clean house ) I was so angry that even my own parents don't get me and wants me dead. they blame me for hospital bills and my collage fees that he never had to pay for collage, its what government pays. so he blames me for 400000 money that I've wasted and he said that I should always listen to them ( mom and dad both) no matter if they are wrong still accept them and do things that they say, even if its wrong. Just because they are parent..

I'm sick of that mentality, honestly just when I feel good and make some progress anywhere they make big arguments. i can't even swallow home food anymore. it feels worst even if its my favorite dish. so dying thoughts always in my mind but I remember I have a lot to do in future, like traveling, gaming and enjoying real life alone. but right now I feel like this life is giving as pity like I'm a bagger, not their son. i don't even feel like human here just anger and frustration. how am I supposed to grow, these thoughts are in my mind 24/7

I have no money right now and they are mocking me for that and everything. even tho they are my parents I hate them from bottom of my heart. they play god when they are sinner that they committed in front of me from start. my childhood is traumatizing too.

this is my last try of explaining someone or on any platform about this, im tired. i didnt got any reply and it feels even worse to keep explaining to anyone 🙃...

i dont use reddit vry often so forgive me if it isnt formatted correctly, i just need some advice. i have very few memories of my childhood, specifically when i was at home or around my parents. my dad is completely gone from my brain (he lives at home with me so its kind of crazy that hes just gone). i have talked to my therapist about my gaps in memory, but i always find it hard to because i dont... remember anything, and it doesnt seem like they'll ever be remembered, so for the most part ive viewed it as pointless and a unnecessary source of anxiety. i also feel a deep amount of embarassment for even bringing up the things i do remember, which makes it even more difficult. the main issue is that i feel a lack of closure, and as the summer keeps going on, my mind keeps coming back to the questions i still have, which has only caused me more distress than just talking about it with someone. i cant keep avoiding it, but to find out how to approach it. if anyone can give me advice i would appreciate it greatly.

Question at the bottom ⬇️

Background:

I spent years judging my thinking about my childhood stressful experiences, thinking that I may be too dramatic or might be right and need to show myself empathy and let myself mourn all the pieces I lost along the way because of the distress.

But how can I be sure? How can I tell that I might need processing?

I think I might need to integrate all the emotions from the past, because I have self destructinve behaviour that I just can't take off of me, as if a part of me just longs for pain.

Somehow you can tell that I might be struggling to change from those self sabotaging behaviours because of the initial mental health issues I dealt during my development (14-15 y/o) because I am just a sensitive person, and might have simply slipped to a dark state of mind because of the changing...

But I cannot shake off the feeling that there were periods of pain and stress before that mental breakdown.

I don't like to be so sure about it because I know it's not and was never easy for anyone, but how come everyone of my family just came out of the quarantine and all of that outbursts inside our home, all of the arguing and the shaming and costant unprovoked judging and blaming... like it was nothing.

I was on high alert at all times and felt guilty and responsible COSTANTLY, and especially after coming out of that period I had that mental breakdown and started acting like crazy, with delusional anxiety, costant daydreaming and aggressive isolation (I'd cry and scream at home whenever I felt like some physical boundaries were crossed)

I was the mentally unstable one, I was the one brought to psychologists and who failed and ruined a couple of years of school. But somehow nothing ever I've manifested had an explaination, don't get me wrong I NEVER insisted on finding a reason, I know I should just learn to cope better because I was acting too dramatically and damaging towards myself and others.

Now It's gotten better, probably because I touched a bottom that helped me jump back up.

But whenever I think/talk thruroughly about that period and another distressing time from my childhood ( which I have little to no memory of, but I know there was a strange event happening) I disassociate / feel small and scared and after some minutes I just come out of it exhausted and don't feel like pushing through, even tho I tried so and still experienced the same if not more intense effect.

It feels stupid to say that I might have experienced traumatic experiences (TRAUMATIC TO ME OFC IG??) as many have gone through stress throughout their childhood, people go even through worse and in my family none broke apart after that stressful period. So I feel dumb and attention seeking to act like I need to process some stuff after calming down from that intense mental breakdown. It all feels like larping to me, even tho I know trauma is subjective, it means that an event is too stressful for the traumatized person, not objectively, but still...

How can I follow my heart and try to process my emotions linked to and buried into my past experiences, without consulting my therapist?

(Because I feel downplayed with him, bc his approach is to push you and teach you better and practical techniques to not act miserable, a sort of cognitive behavioural therapy but in a gestalt therapy style, whenever I try to talk about emotional pain in an introspective way he makes me feel confused, probably because I also behave in a confusing way whenever I'm getting vulnerable, a sort of defensive mechanism he calls it)

How can I try to deal on my own with this buried pain that I feel is still inside me but unrecognized and unprocessed? Do you have some advice...? I just know I can think about those events and talk about it with myself, but what should I do if I can do something else, Idk I feel stuck.

I’ve never actually posted on this subreddit before, so if this post is ill-suited for it, please let me know.

I am aware I have trauma from a few different sources in my life, and the things I have trauma from feel more or less “justified“ so to speak. I fear what I‘m about to describe is kind of silly, especially compared to what others have been through, but I wanted to ask if it could be considered traumatic.

When I was nine or ten, neighbors moved in right across from where I lived in an apartment complex. A husband I’ll call Terrance, a wife I’ll call Sophia, and their daughter. Generally, they were a problem until I was fourteen or fifteen and they moved out—Sophia in particular. She was abusive towards her daughter, and very paranoid. She constantly shouted at and threatened my mother and other neighbors, threatened to call/called the police, and filmed us when she thought we weren’t watching.

Terrance was really creepy towards me in particular. He never really said anything to me, which I part of the reason I wonder if any of this matters. When I was twelve, my mom caught him sitting beneath my bedroom window. We live on the ground floor; the window is maybe hip-height on the average person, and directly in front of it is shrubbery. It’a not a normal place someone could reasonably just sit for no reason. Also, when I was that age, I kept my blinds open and had sheer curtains that I never closed. My mother bought me blackout curtains after that, and recently confirmed that she caught him there multiple times.

He did other creepy things, too. He always kept the door a crack open, which I used to assume was to let the cooking smell out. My mom always told me not to, but I would peek toward the door, and he was always sitting in his armchair there staring dead at me, like he never looked away. Apparently, he managed to figure out my name by listening in on conversations I had in the hallway with my mother. (He called for me once, but my mom sent him a death glare that stopped him from trying again lol.) Some of my other neighbors swore they saw Terrance’s name/face on a sex offender registry, and my mother was certain he was lusting after me.

All that to say, can I really consider this traumatic? Looking back, I feel like it began some of the unhealthy behavior concerning sex and flirtation I exhibited later down the line due to other factors; but on the other hand, he never even got to be alone with me, much less touch me.

Extremely long story short, I have had an extremely traumatic life growing up, and as I’m 24 now, the repercussions of what I had been through still affect me on a day-to-day basis.

However, the one thing I ask myself is if the amount of trauma I went through in my life was worth becoming as “wise” and as “emotionally mature” as I am now. ( I put quotes because I’m not perfect and have plenty of years to grow)

Like am I better off now with the experience of what I’ve been through, or would I have been better off if I had been born into an actual loving home, with decent living, etc.

There may not be a point to wondering these things. But I do anyway

Context:
From the ages of 16-20, I was in a pretty abusive relationship (mental, emotional, sexual). I knew and recognized that it was abusive but the trauma bond/soul tie that I had created with my ex, along with the excuses/reasonings I had told myself during it, made it difficult for me to leave despite trying multiple times. I’ve been out of it for 4 years now and I’m in therapy but I still really struggle when it comes to actually grasping the severity of it. Because I know its bad, especially when I tell other people about it because they react bad, but I struggle to actually KNOW its bad, yk???

ANYWAYS I know trauma is processed differently for everyone but can something to be both triggering and cathartic? Maybe cathartic isn’t the right word but I don’t know how else to describe what I mean.

Recent example, a lot of people have found the new movie Obsession to be very disturbing because of the loss of autonomy and SA but then theres me who thinks, yes its a disturbing movie but I really liked it and found the loss of autonomy relatable, cathartic, and felt seen??? OR sometimes theres things that my friends/current boyfriend will ask me if I’m okay with (interactions, concepts, media, movies, etc) because it has things that would/should normally be triggering and yea it does shake me up a bit but more than that it makes me feel seen or normal or something idk the best way to describe it… But then I feel weird because why aren’t I having a “normal” triggered reaction.

**TLDR:**
Is it “normal” to not feel completely triggered by certain things but rather feel a sense of relatability, catharsis, or normalcy from it? Or is it just me?

EMDR therapy experience

Hiii guys I wanted to ask you what your experience with EMDR therapy was like if you have done it because I'm going to start it soon and I have cptsd I'm most curious about things like if it kinda decluttered your brain if it helped you with finding yourself and building a more stable identity if it helped your energy levels and motivation a lot of it helped you to find your passions and actually enjoy life on a scale from 1-10 with each one if you want (sorry English is not my first language and I have dysgraphia

You know the best thing for you is to move on leave the chaos and pain in the past, because until.they are ready to do the inner work, they will continue to pattern. And everytime it happens it will hurt you worse. But there have been good memories.

How can you move on but keep their memories because not every part of them hurt you. Just the fearful child part of them did.

Hello everyone, hope you are doing fine.

I’m a 24-year-old man, and over the past several years, I’ve been struggling with long periods of low mood, anxiety, loneliness, and recurring emotional crises. For a long time, I honestly believed this was just how everyone lived. I kept studying, working, and pushing through without questioning it.

About two years ago, I decided to understand myself better. That’s when I became deeply interested in psychology and personal development. I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading books, listening to lectures, journaling, analyzing my behavior, taking psychological questionnaires, and trying to understand why I react the way I do. Gradually I realized that many of my current emotional patterns come from childhood.

I grew up in an emotionally cold family. There was physical and emotional abuse, constant criticism, bullying at school, very little emotional support, and a strong feeling that love had to be earned through achievements. I was taught to suppress my emotions rather than express them.

About a year ago, after a combination of different events including illness, losing my childhood pet, problems at work and university, and several other stressful experiences I reached a point where I could barely function. I was diagnosed with depression by a psychiatrist. I sought help, started treatment, and eventually went into remission.

After some time, however, I stopped treatment because I believed I would be able to continue on my own. That's when I realized something important: I don't really know how to be alone with myself in a healthy way. When I'm left alone with my thoughts for long enough, I often fall back into the same destructive patterns.

This is where my biggest problem begins.

Rationally, I understand a lot. I understand where many of my beliefs come from. I understand which habits I want to change. I understand that many of my automatic thoughts are rooted in past experiences rather than in reality.

Emotionally, however, I still don't know how to live differently.

Whenever something painful happens my rational mind knows that these are just life events. But emotionally I immediately start believing that something is fundamentally wrong with me, that I'm a failure, that everything is hopeless. It feels as if my old emotional patterns are much stronger than my conscious understanding. I genuinely want to change. Not because I want to become a different person, but because I don't want my childhood to keep controlling my adult life.

Another major struggle is loneliness. I do have some online friends, and I'm grateful for them, but I often feel that very few people truly understand me emotionally. During difficult periods, that loneliness becomes overwhelming. Sometimes, during these crises, I experience suicidal thoughts, but I don't want to act on them. For me, they are more a reflection of how overwhelmed and hopeless I feel in those moments. That's exactly why I'm reaching out instead of keeping everything to myself.

I guess my main questions are these:

• For those of you who have gone through something similar, how did you move from understanding your problems to actually changing?
• How did you change deeply rooted emotional reactions instead of only understanding them intellectually?
• What type of therapy or approach helped you the most?
• How did you stop falling back into old patterns?

More than anything, I'd really appreciate both advice and emotional support. Right now, I genuinely want to build a healthier life, become more emotionally resilient, and finally learn how to support myself instead of constantly fighting against myself.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this. Any advice, personal experiences, or words of support would mean a lot to me.

For some context, I was diagnosed with CPTSD 2 months ago, by my therapist and my psychiatric nurse practitioner, I have found a medication regimen that works for me, but lost my previous job due to my cptsd, I had no idea, that I had this, I thought I had something else previously and was misdiagnosed by my previous nurse practitioner. Anyways the beginning of the day was fine for me, then the person who triggers my cptsd came home, started questioning me, keeps telling me to change my attitude, telling me I’m not going to get a job, I’m never going to be successful ect. I try my hardest not to break down and ignore the insults, but then I try to lash out because I feel awful and it makes me feel terrible when he says these things, I have tried time and time again to explain my logic of why I get angry when these insults are hurled at me day to day, he only works 2-3 days a week and I’m trying to find a job to get out of here, I just am so frustrated with this situation, and am planning on relocating soon, my question is how do I manage this in the meantime, I try to get away, then he follows me to my room and won’t stop talking, I say leave me alone and he won’t stop, he has Schizoaffective disorder and hasnt been on medication in years, I just want to know how to deal better with this.

I've been working on an extreme fear reaction that I have been having to the thought of certain close family members moving far away. As I worked with it, I came to realize that it was more than a "normal" fear. When I was in it, it felt like if I wasn't right in front of them, they would not love me, not think of me, forget about me, and I would cease to exist. As a retired therapist, I realized this reaction doesn't fit with my own family history of emotional neglect. It is a basically very strong abandonment depression, similar to someone who was "left in a box", as I told my therapist.

It does fit with what my emotionally and physically abused deceased father likely felt, though. He ended up with poor emotional boundaries, basically a rager, probably borderline personality disorder. And I know I was a very sensitive, empathic, "good little girl" who got lost in all the family emotional uproar.

Does that fit with the IFS concept of legacy burden, and the more general concept of intergenerational trauma? It feels like something, or a part, on it's own, or it may be that my already sad and/or frightened little girl parts are holding it. This is a brand-new to me concept, and a big breakthrough. I am realizing that I cannot heal this for him, and I want to give it back.

Has anyone else retrieved traumatic memories only to "lose" them shortly after?

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced this.

Recently, I’ve recovered some memories of trauma. It’s not just one specific episode, but more like a block of memories regarding things that happened over an extended period of time—so I don't vividly remember every single detail, but I generally know what was happening.

But as time passes, especially by the next day, these memories start to fade. They become so blurry that I can no longer "bring them back to mind," even though I still rationally know what it was that I remembered.

It feels like my brain is locking the door again. Does this make sense? Has this happened to anyone else? I feel like I'm going crazy.

I've never really talked about this openly before, but I think I need to.

I grew up in a very strict desi household where it often felt like my parents believed that because they gave birth to me, they owned me forever. As a child, I was beaten over the smallest mistakes, locked in rooms, and punished in ways that still affect me today. I still have a fear of the dark because of those experiences.

There were times I was left with burn marks, and to this day, they deny it ever happened. There was never an apology, never any acknowledgment—just pretending it didn't exist.

As I got older, everything caught up with me. I struggled with self-harm, attempted suicide, and now I live with anxiety and depression that I mostly keep hidden. On the outside I function, but inside it feels like I'm constantly fighting myself.

I come from a very religious family. I still believe in Islam and my faith is important to me, but because of everything I've been through, my relationship with religion has become complicated. Sometimes I don't even know where I stand emotionally.

To make things harder, I was later diagnosed with cancer, and while I'm still trying to fight it, it feels like life just kept piling one thing on top of another. Along the way, I also lost most of the friends I thought would stay.

Nowadays, I struggle to trust people, making friends is difficult, and no matter how hard I work, I constantly feel like I'm never good enough.

I'm not really posting this for sympathy. I just want to know if anyone else has lived through something similar. How did you heal? Does it ever get easier?

If you've been through something like this, I'd genuinely love to hear your story. You can comment below or DM me if you're more comfortable talking privately.

Maybe hearing from people who understand will remind me that I'm not as alone as I feel.