Do you have something in your childhood that you still battle?

I can totally relate and then some. Thankfully there is so much out there to help us help ourselves. Have you heard of The Hoffman Process? They have a book so you can go at your own pace. Another good book is There’s a Hole in my Love Cup. This one also has a workbook. There are also therapists on YouTube who help people who have had Narcissistic abuse. DoctorRamani, Melanie Tonia Evans, Lisa A Romano, & Angie Atkinson (not a therapist but she had a Narcissistic mom). I found the more I learned about it the more I could work through some of it. If you look at anything I’ve shared I hope it helps.

I did not have such experiences, yet my parents do tend to be more critical, than show praise.

Yet I confess I have grown to be like that, too, in some respects, to be critical more than agreeable. It has served me well at work, where I need to pay attention to detail and nitpick. Yet I try not to make it personal, and I know that it is better to teach than berate. Even for selfish reasons, since the more people know the less I have to do! Yet we are a team and people leave or retire all the time, so the more people know how to do things, the better we are able to adapt to changes in personnel.

I tend to be stubborn and set in my ways, and do my own thing, and resist change. It has limited me and my options because I rarely take risks. Yet I am not a conformist. Sometimes being normal to others is a risk to me. I'd rather remain quirky and feel safe, than be mainstream, yet anxious. I do not know how to act, to fake a personality. I am what I am. Social situations are complex. Solitude is simple.

I have never had close friends. No love life. It made me depressed in my youth, but I am more peaceful now. My interests are in the mind, in learning. I think I am decent to people but my own needs come first, unless I am being paid, of course!

You are a decent person. I, and others here, like talking to you. I would hang out with you. Watch birds in ponds and look at flowers. Eat lunch.

I took a walk on grass today under trees in the sun and felt peace. The noise of the world ceased to matter for a spell. Until I went back inside and resumed work. I will be happy when I can retire!

I wish you freedom from those memories and a confident living.

the moster under the bed never did get my dangling foot...

Yes I have never gotten over the fact that I got beat with Hot Wheels racing track when I was a young child.

Yes, sexual abuse by my father at age 7

I hear you. I share much of these--I had an abusive alcoholic father who also beat me for no reason...and set a bar so high for me I have battled low self-esteem most of my life, although I am doing better lately because of a lot of work I have done, books and workshops...

My past trauma has turned into a struggle to find joy.

I have too much.
But I don’t fight it as much as it fights me these days.

I’ve stopped blaming myself for what my parents put me through and made some inner peace with the litany of other abusers, bad influences, and people who intentionally caused me harm or injury.

The trespasses against me were many and still affect my inherent thoughts and reactions.
But slowly I am working on rewiring my brain to remove the worst of those things.

I’m sorry you had such a rough time.
Just know that you’re not alone inside the thoughts that sometimes overtake or overwhelm you.

There are people who care and are filled with love for you.

Peace, neighbor.

poverty

Yes years of abuse from our wrestling coach.

Yes have some childhood memories that are to embarrasing to share but did go to a therapist and he helped

CPtsd, bpd, depression and anxiety.

Yep. PTSD and a very nasty disposition towards people who harm children.

Not particularly from my childhood, but my mid-to-late teenage years.

And it's an experience so bad and so impossible for me to forget, that even if I had advanced Alzheimer's, I'd still remember it.

I’ve been through stuff in childhood that I still feel bad about too. My life is good but not how I imagined it and not what I hoped it would be.

I can identify .
I had a few traumatic incidences when I was a kid.
Left me with depression ,anxiety ,and bad coping skills.
But ,I have had periods of wellness.
Right now it's all seeming to fall apart.

Being introverted, highly socially phobic, neuro-divergent, chronic anxiety and fear about sex, dating, relationships, etc.

I can't identify, but I can listen and be your friend.

You know much of my story , part of the problem is while other kids were learning about love and self confidence we were learning we were less ,not good enough , an object not a person, something to be used then thrown away . When it happens at a young age it becomes ingrained into who we are . Even now i can say it was them not me but that doesn't change the programing. We all have different ways of coping but isolation seems to be prevalent . When fear and intimidation are all you know something like love seems foreign. How can we know it if we never experience it?

We all have different experiences, some good, some bad, admittedly some worse than others. I have negative experiences which still affect me. Thankfully I realize it and can work from a place of brutal self honesty. I no longer allow those experiences the light of day. For me, it serves no purpose. I do hope you find your peace.

No, nothing like that beyond some bullying that a few fights ended. I was grown before I realized I'd led so sheltered a life and came to understand what so many faced growing up.

ya 😢

I can to a certain degree however I made peace with it and have refused to let it define me

Yes

What a group of loose canons