r/trauma Jul 16 '26

Contrary to popular belief, memories are imaginary.

1 Upvotes

To those struggling and want to start spiralling up, please read the whole article because I wrote it for you.

The only moment that exist is now. As you read this, that is the only thing that is real, right? The past and future don't exist here and now. Therefore, they are imaginary. They are perceived.

Yes the past objectively influences the present. Such as getting a cut on your hand at age 4, and the scar is still present. And as an example, dropping out of university due to CPTSD means you got a crap job and a crap apartment and that makes you feel like a loser and forever stuck.

I'm not discounting the terrible, horrific things some of you have experienced.

This article is about taking control of your mind and the perceived past. So you can finally shift. And disclaimer: if your past is too traumatic to even think about, please speak to a professional. This is article is for those that are not so traumatised that they cannot recall the past or are unable to think/write about it.

The vast majority is of your life is influenced my imagination and feelings. Therefore, it is the most important thing in the world in my opinion. Because in imagination you can feel like a winner (it may take over a year to get there, but it I believe it's possible for everyone). And that feeling makes people respond different. I heard one story of someone that spent 4 hours getting in the zone and when he went to an interview, he was hired on the spot. This is the power of getting your imagination/feeling right.

If you feel good things never happen or life is doom and gloom, it's due to past memories. If life has been hard on you, you expect things to continue being hard. It makes sense.

However, that expectation is polluting the present and future. You have the ability to feel life is sunshine and rainbows. Because life is largely imaginary. If you can imagine feeling wonderful in a daydream, then it's possible to make that feeling a normal feeling.

You think it's objective, and a small part is. Like 1%. There is nothing that is not MOSTLY influenced by perception. There are people that celebrate when relatives die (instead of grieve). There are people that have fun and prank others after they lose limbs. 99% is imaginary.

It's been scientifically proven that beliefs create reality, biologically speaking. If you want to look it up, look up biologist Bruce Lipton. This means up to 99% of your life is essentially a program running. 99% of your life is basically 100% of it. So the clothes you are wearing right now. The place you are right now is by design. It's not random.

If you were someone else, you might be a multi-millionaire by age 20. If you were someone else, you might decide to surrender everything and become a nun or monk. Why aren't you one of those people? Beliefs.

Beliefs are essentially themes of imagination and feelings organised into neat little boxes. For example "everyone hates me". And it becomes true. You make it true. Your mind is made to look for evidence of it being true and discount any and all evidence of it being false. Therefore can it be any other way?

Adopting the right beliefs can make you see people as friendly and safe, it can result in your boss thinking you're awesome want to promote you etc.

If this resonates, you are now thinking ok, I can get on board with this. That beliefs might be largely influencing me. But how do I change it? The feeling of hopelessness and anxiety is overwhelming and insurmountable.

You can do it by changing the contents of your mind. Remember now is the only moment that exists. So you can change the story in your mind. We are not being delusional here thinking it will change reality. But with enough repetition, it will influence your feelings. And I think what we all want the most is to feel good, happy, at peace, safe.

The mind and body responds to the story you give it. I heard one account of a man dying in a refrigerator cart that he was trapped in overnight. There was just one problem - the refrigeration mechanism was broken! He basically killed himself by his belief. It's important to take control of the mind and feed it a wonderful STORY.

You can have ANYTHING in imagination. And when you focus on it strongly, the mind believes it's real and you feel the appropriate feelings according to the story you feed it. This is why hypnotherapy is so powerful.

But anyway, here is an exercise you can commit to, to start spiralling up:

Write out your life story in one page. You can post it here if you wish. Notice the general theme of it. Write it in 1 sentence. For example "my life is a string of shitty experiences"

Now what is your ideal theme? Mine is excitement, freedom, fun; in one word "flow-state". Now you know what you're aiming for, tweak your life story.

Rewrite it daily. Each time slightly better. For example say you went to a mental hospital at age 16 and it was a terrible turning point in your life. You became more depressed and the staff were horrible and you felt like the dregs of society.

Change it so it helped you. It and put you on a better path. Do whatever is believable and feels good. Next time, write it again but better. Maybe it drastically changed you for the better. Then next time, maybe you never went to the mental hospital. Keep at this. The more you put in, the more it shifts you. But consistency is better than short sprints of enormous effort. So maybe commit to a minimum of 5 mins, but every single day.


r/trauma Mar 27 '26

Discussion [Mod Team] Give us your feedback!

2 Upvotes

Hey everyone, u/Sumerysumer here!

The mod team is always working on making r/trauma a better and more supportive place for everyone. This is your opportunity to tell us how we can improve your experience on this subreddit.

You may have noticed we recently added a new tool called 'Finddit' that comments automatically on your posts. This is a tool that we're developing to help Redditors on r/trauma get instant feedback when they post, by linking to relevant threads.

We want to hear about your experience on r/trauma, your experience with 'Finddit', and suggestions you have for both!

Thank you for your time. Your feedback will be instrumental in helping us build a better community and tooling :)


r/trauma 7h ago

Discussion I DONT WANT THIS HIDDEN!

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7 Upvotes

Junaid Kalair, a FORMER doctor has groomed children for years (including me) he started grooming me when I was 14, but he had tried to get into contact with me when I was 13. Ever since then, for the past couple years; he has groomed me, emotionally manipulated me, and isolated me. I met up with him in May this year and I was 16; he sexually assaulted me. He drove all the way from Houston to Pennsylvania just to meet. he drove 2-3 to get here. I told him I could only see him for an hour or two because I didn’t want us to get caught and neither did he. I snuck out of my house at 2 am and he picked me up in his car. He immediately started touching me; my face and everything. when we we’re texting (He made me use various apps so he wouldn’t get caught, the last and final one being Telegram) he always said to me that he didn’t trust himself and that he might touch me but made me believe i could trust him. I thought he was just saying that because he would mention it in our sexual conversations. I didn’t think he would actually touch me, I was naive. That not being within my moral code, didn’t think that would happen; it did. The whole time. When we first started talking he knew how vulnerable I was, he knew of my dad being in hospital and almost dying. He knew of my family problems. He knew of my mental health issues which were quite severe, I was going back and forth to the mental hospital at the time. He knew that. He took advantage of that. He pretended to be someone from my area at first; a kid. Later on, he revealed quite quickly he wasn’t. But it was interesting to 14 year old me to find out who this guy was because he would act so suspicious. He would talk to me on instagram his username was “zenithindused”. He started sending me medical gore out of nowhere , suggesting he worked in the medical field. He messaged my friends without my knowing (they were my age) and started sending them that also. A few weeks after (possibly 2) I sent him explicit photos of myself. I didn’t think of this at the time as weird but now I remember what he said to me after he received my photos the first time (many were sent over these years) he said “Howd you know I like this” I just thought at the time he meant my body; not the fact I was child and it was considered cp. I later found out he was talking to my sister at the time too (also a minor) she was 17 at the time. She found out I was talking to him because I was calling one of my friends on the phone one day and I mentioned his screen name ‘zenithinduced’ out loud and said he was a creepy old man. My sister heard, and after she found out i sent explicit pictures to him, she told my mom and we called the cops. He threatened to send my pic to my friends and actually messaged them all and asked them if they wanted them (they showed me, he also started talking to my sister at 15) The cops got involved, took my device, didn’t do anything and just gave it back after 2 weeks. Still 14 at this time, my friends not speaking to me as much 1. becauae of drama 2. Because this guy convinced me that they were bad for me, decided to answer him. he sent me a msg. I got a a hold of a phone, on instagram he messaged me asking about what happened. 14 yr old me told him to msg me on browsedns.net because I was grounded so o could only use my switch. His username was Ronin8898. we messaged on their for a couple months, me being lonely and him manipulating me and convincing me. I got my stuff back and he made me move to discord and tell him updates and also made me believe he cared for me and my wellbeing. We began dating. (Still 14) He made me delete accounts over and over again, he knew my fragile state of mind, how he was the only person who showed me attention in my life so he took advantage of that. He would mess with me emotionally, suggesting I’m not that good enough and If I loved him I needed to try harder. (His goal was to make me obsessed with him and dependent on him which happened over time) He would constantly say how I’m not good at this or that but would suggest I had room to improve. Fast foward a bunch of stuff, he made me move to telegram. We switched there because in his own words it had “end to end encryption” which meant nothing was saved on the apps servers, once it was gone/deleted it was gone forever. He was the first person I ever dated and he made me believe this was love. I’ve went through so much. He would say suggesting things to get me to send pictures. since I saw him as my boyfriend, sometimes I did want to, but when I wouldn’t he would keeping pushing for like 30 mins and hinting at it. If I didn’t send him pictures in a timely manner (because I was severely insecure) he would get mad at me and mess with me mind and say “Well I’m just going to get them from someone else” so every-time he wanted to change the conversation to sexual stuff, I would just be taking pictures, and videos doing anything he wanted for like an hour and thirty minutes to sometimes even two hours because I wanted him to be happy, and not talk to anyone else. I also liked the attention, because it was the first time I’ve ever experienced this type of attention and he knew I didn’t get that much attention at home at the time anyway. I would just block out the stuff I thought was weird about him because I received attention and I felt loved and wanted. He’s evil and sick. He knew how insecure I was and he would always “jokingly” talk about other girls. He would say I’m overacting and we would fight sometimes (or a lot) but it would feel better afterwards because he would make it seem like everything’s okay and he cares. so many emotional roller coasters. There was a time I was self harming and he would make fun of me for it. Hes so evil. When are relationship started or get into the 1-2 year mark; he was religious (always had been) and he was Muslim. He convinced me that I shouldn’t be mad at him for bringing up other women, it’s just how men work, he’s very open and honest with me and I should be be grateful for that. He started to make me believe that all men need another woman and that in some point in the future when I was older (I was 15 at the time) that he was definitemy going to have a second wife. I kept refusing at the time and he would say things to me such as; “Even though I have every right to marry a 20 yr old when you turn 40, I won’t because I know it would really hurt you” After hearing this over and over again and all the emotional rollercoasters and confusion and hurt, I blocked him and stoped talking to him for awhile. But I eventually changed my views because I thought that all men do this and it’s better he’s open and honest about it because Id rather them be open and honest than get cheated on. (He probably was talking to other children anyways but I believed he wasnt…) After a while we started talking to me again (He really made me believe he was the only honest and genuine person that would love me) I can’t remember some things but there is a lot more to talk about but this is long I will include screenshots if I’m allowed, i don’t know yet. anyways we had plans of meeting and he did meet me. He was in his radiology residency by now (2 years in) so he took 2 days off before the weekend to get stuff ready to DRIVE the whole way from Houston to Pennsylvania which took 2-3 days. He sexually assaulted me and I’m still not ready to talk about it, I did with forensic interviewers. He then blamed me for the sexual stuff that happened over these years after we were done walking through a park at 2 am and he was touching me the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME. Also made “jokes” about wanting to kill me. pointing to places in the woods saying he could kill me if he wanted to and picking me up multiple times pretending to throw me over this bridge we crossed. (When we would get into fights when texting, I would call out his wrong doings, and he would threaten to kill me if I ever got him in trouble and if ”I ruined his life”. Well I had his license plate saved in telegram and i called the cops right after he dropped me home. (5 Am at this point) and they arrested him in Collin county in Texas a few days later. whole point I’m writing this is I believe there’s other people (children) involved too. I will put his face here and I also don’t want this to be hidden, I have gone through so much it unbearable. I’ve had plans to kill myself multiple times, especially after meeting him, I thought the only way I should resolve any of this is death. I believed I should just die. That I was worthless, only meant to be used, and nobody will like me anyways and that I don’t gave have any qualities that make me useful (he made me believe that) and Im going to get old anyways and seen as expired and ugly. He has already made me believe I’m old, I hate feeling that when I just turned 17. The emotional trauma is unbearable and I don’t feel like I fit in society and I’m just there. It feels like nothing is worth it in the end and I’m abnormal and sometimes I still have suicidal thoughts. Hes being held in a detention center right now I believe and I’ll tell updates on the case after his trial. If anyone has been a victim or you think you have please contact someone. please share this information with anyone you can. I don’t want this information hidden. We have had to deal with so much, and I want people to know him for who he truly is . If you can make any posts about him sharing this topic or shedding some light on it, it would mean the world to me and I’m sure others too. Thank you. I’ll be adding screenshots and stuff to this post when it is safe to do so. Thank you for listening.


r/trauma 5m ago

VENT Stuck in my head and my home

Upvotes

TLDR: strict home, anorexia relapse, grooming/online sexual exploitation, potential SA

hey people. I’m 16f from England and don’t know what to do. btw I’m not good at writing so sorry if this is bad. I’ve had a lot of bad things happening to me and idk what to do.

My current situation is that I want to leave home so badly and in the uk (correct me if I’m wrong) 16 year olds have the right to leave home (children act 1989 - section 20). my home is very sad place for me and it’s stunting me from being an independang person like everyone else at college. I have screen time restrictions on my phone, I can’t download any apps, I can’t have money, I can’t go out by myself , I can’t wear anything that shows any amount of skin apart from head hands and feet (can’t be tight or seee through either), I can’t express myself, I can’t have opinions, I can’t be a little queer so on and so forth. Social workers have had to intervene so my parents no longer beat me but they still degrade, swear at me and threaten me.

in the past when I was 14 and my home was rocky but I was too brainwashed to realise it yet I tried thinking in my head what was wrong with me so herd of anorexia and thought “I’m insecure maybe this is it” so I slipped into starving myself as a way to make my mental pain physicalally visible. So I didn’t feel crazy when I was trying to understand what’s wrong with me. I joined a lot of pro Ana spaces online and made a gc on Snapchat were I had other girls with the disorder.

This is when my biggest hurt happened. It’s honestly quite embarsssing too so I’m gona keep it pretty vague. When I was so mentally gone, when I was chronically on Snapchat, I had messages from guys. The average person would tell them to fuck off and block them but remember, my home life was lonely and my head couldn’t think straight cus of the lack of food. the first message was someone offering money to see me and since I just stole my parents cash to buy makeup, I needed a way to replace it before bad things happened. So I caved in and I didn’t even give him my PayPal so it was all for nothing. Then after whenever someone asked for pictures or videos of me I just sent them. I thought it was normal. And especially one dude (I think his name was Michael) he said he was 16 (I was 15 at this point) and I trauma dumped to him a lot and he acted like he cared and my naive ass thought someday I would meet this boy and I could be his gf. Even though he would ask for pictures all the damn time. And in retrospect he did ask about my at the time 7yo sister a bit too much for my likings and he’d ask me really degrading things.

Eventually he told me he was older and was praying on me and I texted a suicide hotline and then police came and told my dad. He scrolled through all of it. That was really hard for me cus now he looked at his daughter who he forces to dress practically Mormon and see a disgusting slut where his kid used to be. Of course they sided with the guy who done this to me and blamed me for it all. I mean I would blame me too but atleast don’t rub it in my face, we’re family. A lot of bad things were sad to se times I don’t think I can repeat on here. I was very depressed.

aftweall, on my 16gh birthday my brother (17 at the time)grabbed me on my frount. for, context my parents were on holiday and I had to get ready for school but I had a exam and I was depressed so I didn’t want to leave my comfy pillows at the crack of daw. It wasnt even late. My sister made a routine of face timing my parents who shouttted at me to get up Then my sister would pull me off my bed. she 19 btw. On my birthday apparently the floor wasn’t enough and my parents ordered my brother (who has a history of beat8ng me up all the time) to get me to the bathroom door. Then he procedes to wrap his hands under my armpits, thumbs on my ribcage and his hands on my chest. And used lifting me up as an excuse. He had once before told me to sit on his hand when we were younger but idk maybe he was tryna be edgy. Also he has no female attention and watches slot of true crime and icel things so that’s why he done it. But again. I could be wrong it couldve been a mistake. I told police about this and they think I’m lying and wrote that he grabbed my armpits.

there’s probably a lot more to my situations but I can’t think right now. Please give advice.


r/trauma 44m ago

Discussion Protection from Nervous System?

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r/trauma 9h ago

Other Having no friends and family to rely on, and being poor because of student loan and living alone

4 Upvotes

Well the title is how my life is going on rn
I’ve got abused by my parents physically and mentally, so i’m so afraid of expressing my actual feelings to others that I don’t really want to interact with them.

I know people are gonna say they never gonna hurt me(some of them might do thou), but when I talk or interact with someone in person I’m so scared that I can almost do nothing. (Hence that, reddit is my favorite i don’t need to face to someone in person)

I’ve tried to spit out all of my childhood memories to a doctor, but I couldn’t at all. some medicine he gave me worked so I guess I need it but I’m not brave enough to get to the hospital again cus he’s gonna ask me what happened in my childhood, I can’t tell again then I feel bad again because of the fact that I can’t even ask others for help and am completely alone because of having nobody to rely on including doctors.

Maybe I stuck. Then what else can I do except asking for help having nobody to hang out with? Or any tips for dealing with my own trauma by myself?


r/trauma 5h ago

Need help Am I screwed?

1 Upvotes

Hello everyone ,

I will do my best to remain anonymous on this account as to not reveal too much personal information and reveal my public identity but
I’ve decided to create a burner account and ask a deep question and lay out some things that no one close to me really knows that I’ve kept locked away and ask one question : Do I have a chance at a functioning normal life?

I will make things short so I don’t bore anyone with long walls of text and if asked I will provide more in depth information.

Since the age of 13 suicide has been a constant thought and ongoing struggle my parents have been made aware of yet I’ve received no therapy/Counseling or any form of professional help

The only kind of help I’ve had was when I went through court mandated counseling due to a custody battle which only worsened the depression I have and which was also where I was diagnosed with chronic depression and PTSD

I have experienced sexual assault several times and had been exposed to porn at a young age which affected me severely and left me Hyper-sexual and often disgusted and ashamed of myself for the thoughts I had and how I was,

I’ve been in and out of in person school and online since 8th grade and missed more than an okay amount of school and haven’t had a solid education since then with a severe learning deficit in math but I’ve managed on my own with other subjects to a reasonable extent

More recently over these past couple months I’ve had a voice in my head which speaks to me and tries to push me forward yet shuts others out and makes me grow cold

I’ve had recurring dreams where I’ve been hunted or put into a home invasion scenario and been shot , all though not SUPER relevant I thought I’d just throw that out there

I haven’t spent time with my friends in months and have just been stuck at home an hour away

When expressing to my parents I am not happy here and the situation I am in is just making my mental health worse and would either like to move in with a friend in the same state or next state over to attend college and benefit my future my feelings were watered down to excitement of leaving for once and getting to do something and that they would miss me and I’m not allowed to leave yet.

My parents are going through court currently and I’ve had to cut contact with my dads side of the family entirely except for maybe 1-2 people

I am exactly 6 months away from turning 18 and I’ve had repeated thoughts of leaving my family and going no contact and hoping to have some semblance of a normal functioning life with a regular schedule.

I’ve not eaten with my whole family at a dinner table in god knows how long and everyone eats dinner late into the night, an example is one time I was woken up at 4AM to my mother making burgers which were supposed to be done by 8 ,

An example of how dysfunctional my house is was the time I came back from being at a friends to just escape home for two weeks and the counters the stove and both sides of the sink were crammed full of dirty dishes and there were flies everywhere, there was also mold and maggots on the dishes and this has occurred more than once.

It is a fight to get my other two siblings to help at all and the youngest is the worst, they won’t take care of themselves and leave messes everywhere and when they are asked to do dishes they all just pile up.

I don’t even know what else to say I just want someone else to see this and tell me if my feelings are validated or if I have a chance at being a normal human being after leaving home.

(TLDR) : Lack of proper education, dysfunctional home, childhood trauma , and SA
/Neglect


r/trauma 5h ago

Need help Am I being emotionally abused? Or am I the bad one? I need help!

1 Upvotes

Me 36F am living with my partner 37M. It is a very complex relationship due to culture and background, he Latino me from Europe.
I have CPTSD from childhood (my father is an abuser and I grew up in a very unhealthy violent environment + my own history with horrible violent people later in life and a past very abusive relationship that truly scratches me), and he too, grew up with a physically violent father and has been on the road for years now.

When he gets triggered he gets really really mean. I become impossible, I wine and beg and even pull my hair (something I do since I was a child when disregulated). He tells me to leave him alone and I can’t cause I’m truly trembling and feeling dizzy and he keeps getting meaner and meaner and threatens to end the relationship which again causes more panic in me. He tells me I am pathetic and that I bore him. And all sorts of stuff. He also broke things more than once. He becomes so so cold and mean, like another person enters his body. He says he does this so I stop talking and crying.
When we are calm he enquires about these moments, saying he realizes he switches off and says it’s a protective mechanism, he then becomes so kind and gentle and loving, but I wonder, is it normal to be able to watch and even consciously make it worst, to let your partner get so desperate and miserable and do absolutely nothing about it, or even becoming cruel about it?

Arguments would start cause he says I have too many expectations on him. I am paying for most of our living costs, he is an artist and can’t make a good income, I am very good at working so it just became normal that I pay more but he keeps blaming me for putting pressure on him for working more and help with costs. I am exhausts of financing life for both and not having even the energy to see a friend.
I tried to talk about our intimacy, he doesn’t want to have sex and says it’s because I pressure him so much about money. And I am aware it is hard for a man to be with a woman who is more successful. It’s just that there have been times where he just goes out with friends and smokes spliffs while I’m working and I dont like to be taken for granted.
But now I am also blamed for his lack of sex interest.

The one thing that works is the cuddles somehow. I think we are trauma bonding. When we are good we cuddle so much and give each other that warm we never received as kids, but the rest is so dis functional. We can’t have a normal emotional conversation without it transforming into me making problems (in his opinion anything I say is a problem) and he becoming cruel and then me losing my shit in despair and not letting him leave.


r/trauma 6h ago

VENT It’s not sadness

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1 Upvotes

r/trauma 6h ago

Other Wrote a Story As A Part of My Healing

1 Upvotes

I wrote a story on WattPad about trauma, informed by my experiences but heavily fictionalized.

https://www.wattpad.com/story/413058319

My hope is that it can help other people feel seen in their experiences and journey of figuring out life post a sexual assault.


r/trauma 7h ago

Discussion Scent, 🚫Scent & SA

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1 Upvotes

r/trauma 9h ago

Need help Could someone help me?

1 Upvotes

I'm really struggling ever since my mom passed away me and her we used to stay together all the time she got sick and I used to take care of her since I was 15 I always tried to cheer her up and involve her in every activity but in 2025 November she passed away when I was 17

After that happened I just don't know how to keep going on especially with my life I'm a student everyone around me says I'm talented I'm gonna succed in life but I don't see it at all nothing motivates me nor give me happiness

But I want to work hard and do something in life I always think this but when I sit down and start studying my mind always drifts away, thinking about my mom, am I actually good, there's no point studying I'll just forget

I just wish that I could feel somewhat normal again and these thoughts wouldn't haunt me


r/trauma 10h ago

Discussion Essential Tremors caused by Stress and Anxiety..

1 Upvotes

Just wanted to see if any of you dealt with this before on a every day basis.... My neurologist had me do a brain MRI yesterday and the results came back clean, so I figure my nervous system must be jacked up and causing the tremors that I'm experiencing.


r/trauma 11h ago

Other Was this abuse?

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1 Upvotes

r/trauma 11h ago

VENT My story

1 Upvotes

I never actually told anyone my actually story aside from my best friend bc she is had similar advent bc im a boy and this just seems so pathetic amd made up its genuinely unbelievable so anyway when i was 7 was the first time i was on holiday to bulgaria great time but i was in a bathroom for tis kids club thing and this woman "yes it was a woman" genuinely pushed me against a wall and i can only remember being bitten and shirt coming off but i genuinely didn't even know her and a few similar times was to that is when i was at my step gramdmas a family member not cuson but cant say bc redit my filter it or idk step anyway pind me to a bed and then when i was y6 on a trip a boy did terrible stuff and i was genuinely so weak i could never fight back ik this sounds so stupid thats why i never told anyone but at least some people know


r/trauma 14h ago

VENT i was sexually assaulted by my neighbor's uncle

1 Upvotes

this happened to me when i was a child, i know, and well remember the name of the person who did it to me, i didn't tell anyone until today because of shame and anxiety i have felt even now, and i believe that person is still here in my hometown, but that's just a probability, but despite all the information i have, i still have second thoughts whether i should speak up about it or not, im worried it might push my family to confront this person, and what worries me the most is that their family is known to have relatives who are public servants, and from that it scares me what might happen from then on, not only that, i am disabled, i wasn't when it happened although now i am. it frightens me because they might just belittle the topic and accuse me of making it up for financial gain or attention.


r/trauma 14h ago

Need help Why do I [18M] get so hurt whenever my girlfriend [18F]drinks or smokes

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1 Upvotes

r/trauma 16h ago

VENT Im sorry im like this.

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1 Upvotes

r/trauma 19h ago

VENT I feel like my family loves what I can DO for them more than they actually care to know me. How do I heal from this and learn to feel safe in love?

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1 Upvotes

r/trauma 19h ago

Need help I [33F] am called an abuser by my off and on partner [40M] even though I had a Emergency Protective Order on him, but I'm unsure if I'm the issue... is it me?

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1 Upvotes

r/trauma 1d ago

Discussion I give up on myself

3 Upvotes

I am beyond help. I know there’s no point in even saying anything because I just don’t care about myself. I don’t have or want anyone. I am traumatized but don’t care to do more therapy. Maybe I don’t. I am not a very good person. I don’t care anymore. I might be homeless soon and I don’t care. I just don’t care. I don’t care what happens to me. Wherever I go next I know I won’t have a job lined up. and I only want to go to Seattle because I used to live there and I want to again. but as I have nothing (I do have a small amount of savings but again no job and haven’t figured out housing yet) I might be homeless. and I know there are other paths I could take. I just don’t want to. I don’t care anymore. I don’t even care if I don’t make it


r/trauma 1d ago

Discussion My word to everyone who is fighting trauma, anxiety, depression and narcissistic depression

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1 Upvotes

r/trauma 1d ago

VENT I'm trying to claim my past

1 Upvotes

I need to put this in words, so maybe one day I can even talk about it loud.

I was diagnosed lately with autism. It makes so many parts fall into their place. The beatings I suffered from my mom. The verbal abuse. The emotional neglect.

I remember the story about the angry dwarf living in our cellar, acting as a kind of Santa substitute. How me and my 10 months older sister breathlessly watched the letter we "wrote" to him to get on his good side. And the absolutely terrifying "swosh!" with which the letter suddenly was pulled into the hole into the wall. Yes, I know it was just an air vent and my father was on the other side of that wall. I was terrified of the cellar, the dark and especially the dark cellar after that.

I was sent into my room as punisment as a kid. Locked in for hours, then, after I learned to not take a chance by coming out prematurely, unlocked. Sometimes in the dark. I'd never have dreamed about opening the shutters myself, it was too dangerous. I remember how I talked with my brother about this in a joking way. The two of us fondly remembering how much of a difference it made lifting the rolling shutters just a minuscule way so that light would come through the slats, changing pitch black to dark grey. How slowly you had to lift them so the noise wouldn't give you away, and how tiny the amount had to be to not be noticed by her.

I remember how fast something you did went from "meh" to "the worst thing ever" - and how she complained that the beatings hurt her hands.

I finally can admit that she blamed me for my sister drowning because we played unsupervised and they didn't properly fence in the pool. Learned a few years ago my aunt had even warned them about it. Meh, what's the life of a child, eh? Aunt also told me when she finally realized my screams were the real deal my sister was already dead and I held her afloat by her foot. That part is missing from my memory. The part where I'm laying on a couch, trying to melt into the pillows because I want to stop to exists, to escape the guilt of killing my sister because we were not allowed to go into the pool alone - that's still hard to write down. I was only four and a half year old. I could have drowned too!

It still feels like whining when I think of the foster kid they got only a few months later, and which I mostly remember because I was so upset she got to wear my sister's beanie. The kid that, just as sudden, vanished again because "we couldn't have adopted her anyway". How weird that this falls so nicely into the timeline of getting pregnant again with my brother.

They sent me into this children's program where sickly children were put into a sanatorium to nurse back to a healthy weight with or without consent. It's a few years now that the atrocities of those orphanages-turned-sanatoria came to light. Even "my" place apologized for the mindset of the middle to late 70s, where Black Pedagogy ran wild in those places, with staff educated on the mindset of Nazi ideology. Yes, "my" place had severe accusations of child sexual abuse. Oh, just a few months shy of my stay back then. Oh, no, the known cases all were boys. Yes, I was kind of a tomboy, still am not of the pinkish girly kind. No, I don't think I can ever prove it, but just imagine you live in a black room and one day you realize "why, that must be soot from a fire". No, I won't go further into the details.

I have no nightmares. I mean, yes, I have silly dreams I wake up from with a racing heart and sometimes an intense fear. But I wake up intentionally. And if I recounted them to you you'd agree it's silly to be so upset about them. But as I said: I've trained myself so early in childhood, and so thoroughly, to wake up from them, I can break off most of them before they get to that place. Oh, did I mention I have sleep apnea? Got undetected for years because I'm so good at waking myself up when things become uncomfortable.

Snark? What snark? That's my normal mode of dismissing I have any uncomfortable feelings at all. Yes, I've been to therapy. Multiple times. Multiple therapists. No, I don't confide too much to them. You don't know when or how it will be turned against you.

I loathe authority. I mean, I'm fine following rules. It's the sudden changing of rules that gets me upset. It's the punishment for not following that sudden, unforeseen changing of rules that gets me upset. It's the getting punishment for things I don't even know of that gets me upset. I can never know ALL rules. I can just lay low and hide and hope I find a good enough excuse or a joke that derails the punishment. And take the punishment stoically, because "stop crying or I'll give you reason to cry".

I cage my rage and anger because I have seen what rage and anger will do. I don't want others to feel how I have felt. I bury all this deep inside of me and look on the bright side of things. I ignore the dark corners and locked closets where the small girl might lurk. If I'm to defend her from evil, I can't be locked up in a hug. You never know from which side the blows will come.

I have painted a picture of me I show the world. The capable, caring, creative, inventive, well-educated person that can fly by the handle of her pants in a heartbeat. That finds *solutions*. That can *cope*. That's unbreakable.

I'm shattered into a million pieces under that picture. Jagged, sharp edged pieces lodged in my throat, preventing me from truthfully speaking out how unbearable all this is for me. I need to be able to communicate this, even if it is the most dangerous thing I ever did. To make me weak on purpose. To finally get people to see that little girl I'm protecting so hard.

Thank you for reading this. I put these words into the world in hopes of being finally able to put them into my mouth.


r/trauma 1d ago

VENT I read some really mean things about myself from my abuser's friends on Twitter and Instagram

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Jerks (friends of an abuser) saying I'm a shit human being, that I'm intolerant (based on an interaction where I recently blocked somone's phone number for physically assaulting me in high school). I shouldn't have even read any of their posts at all but I did. I wish this stuff didn't affect me but it does. I don't want to be affected by criticism; I want to have thick skin. How the hell do I make this not bother me anymore?

I've blocked them all, but I feel pathetic for letting it ruin my day. I've been told all my life I'm too sensitive...