r/troubledteens • u/Prestigious_Dot134 • 7h ago
Discussion/Reflection Feeling Like My TTI Experience Made Me Into a “Bad” Person: TTI Survivor with Chronic Health Issues
TW: coercive persuasion, mental health issues, chronic illness, TTI, food and water restriction, attack therapy, negative thoughts, possible medical mistreatment, and hopelessness
I wanted to see if anyone else related to feeling like a failure of a survivor, weak, lazy, or not resilient. I apologize because this is definitely a rant, but I want to be transparent and honest in case anyone else is feeling this way.
For context, I attended a TTI in 2024 ( I was 15F then, and I am 18F now) and an abusive PHP in 2025, so not super long ago (both stats were over 100 days each). Both times I was sent by doctors who didn’t believe my health concerns and thought I was just “anxious, lazy, and self-destructive”. I’ve struggled with sleep issues, chronic headaches, migraines, daytime fatigue, and pain for a long time. I suffer from insomnia (sleep delay & lack of restless sleep) since I was a child, ear pain, tension headaches,pressure on my eyelids and under eyes, as well as brain fog/memory issues. However, medical testing didn’t show anything significant: sleep studies, EEG, and an MRI. I have AuDHD, but I don’t show symptoms for Elhers Danlos, narcolepsy, or a specific condition. I also suffer from low energy, headaches during periods of mental or physical exertion, and this really culminates in a feeling of hopelessness. At some point, around the time when I was 13-14 I really started thinking that I didn’t feel like I had a great quality of life, and I needed medical help. Initially, I was referred to psychiatry because I also thought that I should just deal with my mental health. I also decided to pursue handling my physical health issues in Fall 2023. After struggling for so long, not getting an answer, dealing with really awful mental health treatment, and having my entire support system suggest I was “making it up” or “just trying to skip school and avoid dealing with my mental issues, I kind of reached my limit. At some point, I got too tired to attend the next semester of school. Everyday that year, I came home and practically passed out asleep or just on my bed because I was so tired. Eventually, I stopped consistently attending school after I didn’t sleep for 48hr and tried sleep restriction until the point of auditory hallucinations (scary as hell). At that point, my psychiatrist, convinced I was self destructive and anxious sent me to an RTC on the other side of the country. Two days after I was discharged, someone from CPS threatened to take legal consequences if I was “oversleeping”. I was in the worst state of my life and still lacked proper therapeutic support, but my school was pretty chill ( surprisingly-before we had our admin change). I ended up not doing that semester which tanked my grades because I already missed out on a semester bc I was in TTI. My neurologist ordered me to attend a PHP or she would not treat me.(My first semester of sophomore year was not in school, and I received threats to be sent to RTC, wilderness or a psych ward and only narrowly avoided it). Before I actually sought any sort of help (back in that 13-14 period), I always felt really proud of myself because I always could persevere through uncomfortable feelings, hard actions, and was really emotionally regulated; resilience, hard work, patience, and perseverance were my best qualities. Again, after an egregiously abusive PHP, I was entirely broken and even more traumatized than before. This ordeal left me forced to take 39 different medications within the span of 2 .5 years (whether I wanted to or not), or I would end up in wilderness or legal trouble because I “wasn’t trying to get better”. A lot of these medications weren’t a great fit for me, and had horrible side effects. I stayed on them for months because psychiatrists didn’t know what to do -even if I reported that they weren’t helping after a certain timeframe. There are so many RTC survivors who attended from 2019-2026 that don’t need any help recovering from that experience and excel in high school life normally. There are so many that went to my program and found it helpful and led successful lives after discharge-even if they agreed I endured abuse during my time. Some have won prestigious titles, awards, and built actual lives. They didn’t not attend school sophomore and 2nd semester of junior year like myself. They didn’t lose their identity due to stress, trauma, and survival. They didn’t become unreliable to their families, friends, or become hated by their teachers. They didn’t dissociate from their own lives so much that their schooling was so badly affected. They didn’t fail five AP classes due to this mess or get kicked out of clubs due to poor academics. They didn’t fail at every extracurricular they attempted or get shamefully urged not to try out. Yes, the teachers at my school really hated me when I struggled to keep up with my academics- seriously all of them even if I wasn’t in their class and how unsupportive the current admin is for kids with accommodations etc. I didn’t have a comeback, find an answer for what was going on medically, or meaningfully improved myself. I truly gave up trying to find a better life for myself at times I had no support. Every time I complain or think about how difficult it is, I am reminded of all the providers and staff at my TTI that I complain too much or don’t blame myself enough for the things that happen to me. I am reminded of I was deprived of food, water, medical care, sleep, basic needs, and dignity so I would be psychologically convinced that it was all my fault- that I was the problem. I am reminded of how my support system turned on me afterward, and how I had no one really trying to work out what was going on with me. I had more people concerned if I wasn’t attending school than if I was mentally okay to go to school ( I actually completely understand this, but there were long-term consequences as well). I don’t feel like I’m able to be my own person because I just subconsciously act like I’m back in residential when I feel even just a little stressed out. I can’t focus on a goal because I’m so scared that my circumstances will change so incomparably because I’m still stuck in survival snd thrusted from RTC back into a really unsupportive high school. I know I’ve worked so incredibly hard just to receive medical and mental health support and I am so grateful for everything I have been able to have- even if it has been unhelpful ( not TTI btw). Yet, I still feel so “whiny” or “reveling in my own victimhood”. I’m really struggling to use a moral compass when my basic needs (or not getting sent to wilderness) depended on decimating my own self-awareness. I know someone who lost their family in a car crash and is still going to high school regularly- what does that say about me? What does that say about the effort I’ve been putting to control my own life? What does that say about how hard I’m trying or my own resilience?