I live in s homeless shelter in a room with four beds. Two of which, at the time of writing this, are empty and expecting inhabitants. We'll see who turns up, though I don't have high expectations. Luckily, one of the sociopaths I live with (the overt one) left. He was abusing me emotionally for coercive control. I'm now left living with the covert sociopath who abuses me emotionally whenever he feels bad (for example, when the shelter staff impose rules on him - he turns on me). I've tried reporting him to the manager whenever he broke the rules of the shelter, however they allied with him t ..read more

I am trauma bonded to someone whom I was very close with previously and turned out mentally abusive to me (manipulating me, making fun of my problems, etc). I also constantly keep blaming myself for the things that happened and thinking I am actually the bad one, the abusive one. The reason? Our social lives. The person has lots of friends, meanwhile I have none at all, which makes me think that I must have been the one who only made mistakes and who caused the whole relation to fail (due to my social issues). I must be a bad person and the one who kept on hurting my partner because I have no ..read more

** Trigger Warning ** What happened to me as a kid was a tragedy and it almost broke me. The human spirit and heart are resilient however, and they bent but did not break. We came here from Europe, before I turned six, and my dad bought a piece of land in a lakeside community, and had a new house built. On outward appearance, it was a paradise, oh my, are looks ever deceiving, There is a Clive Barker novel titled, "The Great and Secret Show," I can think of nothing more appropriate to describe this place. There were a pair of younger male adults which had been at work for years in this com ..read more

I’m trying to come to terms with a relationship I had in my teens and was hoping to get some clarity to see if what happened to me would be considered grooming or just very poor boundaries. I had a science teacher that I met in 8th grade who was very attractive and I had a big crush on him. When I moved up to high school he happened to start teaching at the same school, so I also had him for 9th and 10th grades. During my 9th grade year he and I started to become very close. He is 11 years older than me so he was mid 20’s during this time. He was a mentor to me. I didn’t have a lot of friends ..read more

I was mentally abused by someone who was both my partner and closest friend. Recently, I stopped missing them. But bad treatment from their side atill feels as bad as ever. It does not help that it is only getting worse and worse. Recently they have started to insult me, ridicule me for things as silly as not understanding some message they sent. All that while treating stranger girls that they just met with all the biggest respect, throwing compliments at them. In my case, they won't even compliment anymore, just insult and send bland apathetic responses when I do something well. I do not un ..read more

When I was a kid I was molested regularly by one of my guardians. When I was 14 I was lucky enough to escape the abuse when he died. When I was 16 I started dating a guy who was 26. He was extremely abusive and cruel and despite the serious mental and physical damage he did to me, I stayed with him for several years. I found myself missing him and the abuse on and off over the years that we've been apart. I'm happily married to a woman now but I seem to crave and fantasizing about the really horrible things that he did to me. I know it's an absolutely horrible idea but part of me wants to tr ..read more

I joined this forum six years ago because of my abusive family. When it comes to this, things have not been much better. I’m 24 years old, I have a high school diploma, no college degree, no paid job experience, no driver’s license. I’ve used Microsoft Office for over a decade, and have used several means of making money (all unsuccessful), but I’m not sure if hiring managers even care. Not only do I still live with my family, but they are abusive, they make me out to be a brat still, with quite the rap sheet, and they try to tell me I really am one, and I’m the one in the wrong, in spite of ..read more

I've written about it several times over the years on this forum... When I was about 10 years old (I'm 57 now) I was molested by a man who did some work on our house. I remember being interested in the work he was doing (the work took him a few days) and he asked my parents if he could take me to a movie when he was done. My dad didn't want me to go to the movie because of his religious convictions, but said it would be okay if I spent the night instead. During the night he started sexually molesting me. I have very vivid memories what happened that day - I remember him picking me up, what w ..read more

I don't really know exactly where to post this because I'm not sure if this is abuse-related (although my CW said it is), or if this was just regret from a manic episode or the severe dissociation I have been experiencing over the last year. So I had a very bad 2023. From Feb through halfway through summer I was in a relationship and to be honest don't remember shyt about it other than the good times although I do remember struggling intensely and that halfway through summer my case manager and my IP dr saying I really really really need to cut contact with him. So after 42 days between the E ..read more

It’s something I have struggled with.. I have been seen as mentally ill but my family uses it as a tool for manipulation so they can seem like martyrs/ victims. When I began exploring the labels I was given- like bipolar- a confusing picture unraveled that wasn’t manic episodes dispersed with depression- but anxiety, distress and dissociation. I do take meds and they probably help. I just remember my mother using my mental illness as a tool to control me, but never actually help me. I couldn’t talk to a therapist if I requested one and when I did I was met with physical abuse for making m ..read more