TW: 2009, MySpace, I was 16

2009, MySpace, I was 16.

A bunch of fake accounts orchestrated a fake pile-on attack.

They gaslighted me into thinking “two friends” of theirs attempted suicide, or died from the attempts.

It was intense, unclear & emotionally traumatic for me, and still is. I took on the guilt and felt responsible for it all. I felt like if I hadn’t interacted with these people the attempts/deaths wouldn’t have happened.

Messed up my life looking for closure 😞

The thing that gets me is the nagging uncertainty around what happened to me. People both in my life who care about me, and well-meaning strangers have told me it was probably just a sick lie the person behind the fake accounts made up (some evidence indicates the fake accounts were all used together, or possibly connected and heavily linked together)

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Miram · 31-35, F

🤍

BurningBright · 31-35, M

@Miram you are kind for acknowledging my post and understanding my ongoing trauma

Miram · 31-35, F

@BurningBright I understand what is like being taken advantage of to the extent that there is nothing left of your sanity.

I wish I could spare you this kind of suffering and somehow set you free.

Helplessness trauma is the worst.

BurningBright · 31-35, M

@Miram it happened a long time ago. But it lingers.

I think the fact I was lied to about *everything* is hard to believe fully. It was very elaborate and for a long time I dismissed the possibility it wasn’t real given the scale of people who DM’ed me.

It was only relatively recently that I could reverse image search and find the “scene queens” who’s photos belonged to the fake accounts!

Plus the person behind it all moved their fake accounts from MySpace to Facebook 😮 I know… shocking!

But my point is, how do I fully accept that fake accounts = lied about suicidal friends? 🤥 Have you encountered people similar to this in your online life? Perhaps on MySpace itself?