AskFediverse

· 1 day ago
@sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world

Is it common for family members to spy on each other's sexual behavior to find evidence of "degeneracy"? Or did I grow up in hell?

When I (23M) was growing up, my parents hated whenever I locked my door for privacy. Like most adolescent boys, I had a libido and things that I liked to look at when I was taking care of that.

When I was 15, my dad would lean against my door every day to listen in. One day, he heard I was in the middle of it, and as quickly as possible, he picked the lock of my door and caught a glimpse of me watching some pretty crude and wacky rule 34 that was sorta ambiguously gendered. He immediately closed the door and retreated to his room. When I cleaned up and asked why he “knocked,” he said “nothing” with an unsettling smile.

7 years later, when I came out as passionately heterosexual because I finally figured out what my type was, he became very angry and told me I was REALLY a [f-slur], and he could prove it by revealing what he caught me watching all those years ago. I actually thought he would be glad to know how I turned out, but it seems that he, a conservative, was angry that I wasn’t queer.

Recently, my older brother got into my journal with all of my private thoughts. The first thing he read was the dozens of pages of sexual fantasies I wrote down for my sole enjoyment and reference. When I confronted him, he justified his intrusion into my most intimate thoughts with “God told me to do it.” He nitpicked my fantasies and told me that my openness to choosing my gender and sexual expression instead of forcing myself into the cishet box would inexplicably turn me into a pedophile. It seems that 5,000+ unfiltered words exhaustively proving my heterosexuality for strong mature women wasn’t satisfactory.

I’m curious if others have have experienced this dynamic of family members violating someone to “test” their sexuality and look for evidence of deviance, or if this is a complete “WTF” situation that isn’t even a thing among most conservative households.

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Replies

@mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
· 36 minutes ago

Complete WTF situation. If you become a serial killer, bring this up in court for reduced sentencing.

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@zaki_ft@lemmings.world
· 1 hour ago

Sorry you had to live with that.

We don’t get to choose our family.

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@Donebrach@lemmy.world
· 18 hours ago

Sounds like both your dad and brother are gay and also extremely abusive. Fun fact, just because someone is a blood relative doesn’t mean they have a free pass to be in your life.

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@gsuwosl@lemmynsfw.com
· 18 hours ago

My Mother really disliked that I always closed the door to my room and wanted it wide open. We also had the bathroom door always open, so we could use the toilet while one was showering in the shower with glassdoors.

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@Horsey@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

Hi! This was very similar to my situation! Yeah, it took me until my 30s to understand what happened and think of it as abuse. You survived abuse.

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@BambiDiego@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

This isn’t normal, but it’s also no unexpected from a background of people who need the control over other’s lives. In this case it’s mostly because of religion, but it isn’t solely that.

If it’s any help, I would recommend keeping your private life, well, private.

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@Professorozone@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

This is wack yo!

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@pastermil@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

It’s not common at all. What the fuck, dude

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@morphballganon@mtgzone.com
· 1 day ago

Still there? Find a chair or board you can use to prop under your doorknob so it’s unopenable even if it gets unlocked from outside.

Diaries aren’t safe, ever. It sucks but it’s true.

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@DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

Use codes.

Or go digital. (Standard Notes for example)

I seriously doubt a bunch of hillbillies parents/siblings can decipher even a basic homemade code.

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@IzzyScissor@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

Still not safe.

I wrote one coded entry in a new journal, and my mom brought it to me the next day and told me to decode it for her. She “just wanted to understand what I was writing about to make sure it wasn’t anything bad.”

I lied about it and then didn’t write anything down again. Helicopter parents are the fucking worst.

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@DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

Have a bunch of innocent looking books (as in novels, textbooks, etc…), then write in the books with UV pen lolol.

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@dumbass@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

You have a fucked up family full of fucked up people doing fucked up things and pretend fucking god told them to do the fucked up things.

Man, my heart goes out to you, you got some weird family members.

Me personally, I would write them off untill they can treat me with the respect I deserve.

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@glorkon@lemmy.world
· 18 hours ago

Yeah, that’s the kind of toxic family that one should cut off as soon as possible.

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@tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone
· 1 day ago

you grew up in hell

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@SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

That’s insane person behavior

Those people are bad

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@AA5B@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

I’ve read stuff like this online and was hoping it wasn’t real

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@Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
· 1 day ago

For an American Christians™️ this is disturbingly common.

This is toxic as hell.

I suggest therapy to deal with your family. It sounds over compensating to prove yourself to them, a form of people pleasing that often comes from abused childhood.

It’s likely there is so much more abuse in your childhood that went down but you do not have the perspective on to see how terrible it was.

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@hperrin@lemmy.ca
· 1 day ago

That sounds typical for conservative Christian households, but is deeply unhealthy. It’s a huge violation of both trust and privacy, and also extremely, overtly bigoted. So, typical? Yes. Normal? No.

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@msokiovt@lemmy.today
· 1 day ago

Homosexuality can be, and usually is, the gateway into paedophilia. Some homosexuals don’t do this (as they know it’s wrong), but it happens on average from what I researched into this. Why your father believed you were homosexual instead of being heterosexual is beyond me, though I think he wanted you to be a paedo so he could have you railroaded… even if you never wanted to speak to minors in the first place.

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@morphballganon@mtgzone.com
· 1 day ago

The overwhelming majority of pedophiles are exactly who you would think they are, those who are outspokenly against lgbtq. The opposition is an act. Normal people (non-pedophiles) have no motive to come out against homosexuality; there’s no reason to do so. Unless you have something worse to hide.

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@msokiovt@lemmy.today
· 1 day ago

Leviticus 18:21-23, from the YLT Bible is as follows:

'And of thy seed thou dost not give to pass over to the Molech; nor dost thou pollute the name of thy God; I [am] Jehovah. And with a male thou dost not lie as one lieth with a woman; abomination it [is]. 'And with any beast thou dost not give thy copulation, for uncleanness with it; and a woman doth not stand before a beast to lie down with it; confusion it [is].

That’s why I knew something was up, because what is described here (with context), can lead to paedophilia, if not hebephilia (which Donald Trump is) or tileophilia.

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@DerisionConsulting@lemmy.ca
· 1 day ago

Homosexuality can be, and usually is, the gateway into paedophilia. Some homosexuals don’t do this (as they know it’s wrong), but it happens on average from what I researched into this.

I can’t tell if you’re doing a bit where you pretend to be a bigot from the 1950’s, but gay people aren’t pedophiles “on average.”

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@ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

This kind of anti-gay apologia was legitimately discredited decades ago by all accepted standards, and your research is shit.

Anita Bryant, shut up.

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@msokiovt@lemmy.today
· 1 day ago

Discredited by accepted standards means it was accepted using a flawed system that was overrun by academia and the media, of which is highly American-style liberal. American Conservatives lost it in the 1970’s I think (That’s from an episode of The Survival Podcast I listened to, so you can take a look at if I got it wrong).

That’s thanks to Rules For Radicals by Saul Alinsky, of which American Democrats used against Republicans for years, and now they’re starting to do the exact same thing, though astroturfing the flip out of it.

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@hperrin@lemmy.ca
· 1 day ago

Then why are there more straight religious leaders convicted of child molestation than gay people? It sounds like your research lacked any actual data.

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@msokiovt@lemmy.today
· 1 day ago

They might have been homosexual themselves, while acting straight for “muh insert deity here”. There are homosexual conservatives and liberals (both sides do this), and actually want to normalize it, so that’s why there’s paedophilia on both sides.

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@hperrin@lemmy.ca
· 1 day ago

Yes, I’m sure it’s the more complicated explanation that requires more assumptions rather than the simpler explanation that you’re just wrong.

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@msokiovt@lemmy.today
· 17 hours ago

Ockham’s Razor doesn’t work here, nor does it work most of the time. The reason why a mod removed some of my comments on this post, despite my opinion being what it is, was because I didn’t use Ockham’s Razor (on top of that, the mod basically admitting that I told the truth).

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@hperrin@lemmy.ca
· 16 hours ago

Statistics don’t agree with you. Data doesn’t agree with you. Evidence doesn’t agree with you.

But you know you’re right, right? Your pastor agrees with you, right? And the conservatives who hate the gays agree with you. Everyone who uses feelings instead of evidence agrees with you. Surely that means you’re right.

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@kinther@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

No, this is not normal. Or at least my upbringing was nothing like this. I grew up catholic (until 12) and my extended family is fairly conservative. While I did fall into the cishet paradigm, no one was spying on me and looking for evidence I wasn’t.

Is there anything you didnt share that would explain further why they did what they did? Can you think of any reason they would suspect you?

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@HubertManne@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

Its not uncommon for kids to not really have privacy but they let you have a lock on your door and then picked it???? That is weird.

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@CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
· 1 day ago

Even in conservative households, that’s weird. If your dad had blown up right there about the sinful things happining in the room I’d get it more. What he actually did was inexplicable. And the older brother thing is just awful.

Since it was two incidents total, I won’t go straight for hell, though.

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@EponymousBosh@awful.systems
· 18 hours ago

The odds of these two deeply weird incidents being isolated in a case like this is about 1%

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@CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
· 18 hours ago

Eh, I’ve had weird incidents with otherwise fine people. I’m guessing the brother is generally problematic, though, because of the amount of thinly-masked deliberate cruelty displayed there.

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@LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

Absolutely. This is not just some bible-thumping “you will burn for your sins if you don’t repent” stuff, otherwise the logical reaction would have been to have a serious conversation on the spot. This is someone collecting blackmail material in his own imaginary world where things are what the voices tell them they are.

Run, don’t walk. Seriously.

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@CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
· 1 day ago

Or maybe that was his plan, but he chickened out once it got too real? You’d expect it would still change things if he was at all homophobic, though. As it is, it was just memoryholed until he thought he was being lied to.

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@LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

That is what I mean. Imagine being an otherwise decent person who just happens to strongly believe in the whole conservative-christian system of values. Wouldn’t you want to act on your son being potentially gay?

Or even if you convince yourself that it is better to sweep it under the rug for the sake of peace or something, wouldn’t that be something you take into the grave? And, secretly feel relieved if your son “came out” as straight to you? After all, your own son apparently managed to get back to the “right path”.

I am not a psychologist, and I believe that it is not appropriate to diagnose people who didn’t ask for a diagnosis. But the father has some serious issues, and for his own safety and sanity, I can only tell OP to run and CYA as best as possible in case the family lashes out.

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@nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
· 1 day ago

yea sorry about your hell bro

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@freebee@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

It might be healthier for you to break contact with your family or at least make contact the bare minimum (Christmas, birthdays). That’s some fucked up parenting. You leave your teenager alone in their room when the door is locked. You can try to talk about stuff with teenagers, voice opinions about sexuality and all that, but sneakily opening that locked door is some seriously wrong shit.

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@phoenixz@lemmy.ca
· 1 day ago

Yeah no, you grew up in hell and nothing about that is normal.

Family you don’t choose, friends you do choose. you don’t owe your family anything, find good friends that will love you for what and how you are.

It is okay to cut off toxic family

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@Hobo@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

By just reading the title I can say that you grew up in hell. Now let me read your description to see if it was normal hell or super hell.

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@buddascrayon@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

My hot take: your father is angry you aren’t gay because he secretly is and has had to deny this his entire life due to his conservative ideology.

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@mushroommunk@lemmy.today
· 1 day ago

Grew up in very similar hell. It’s way more common than people think but also not appropriate at all.

I’ve since completely cut off the toxic members of my family and never been happier.

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@toiletobserver@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

The closest my friend’s mom ever got was yelling at him as we went out for the evening, “don’t be stupid Jeffrey! Use a condom!”

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@6nk06@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

my dad would lean against my door

Creepy, not normal at all.

he picked the lock of my door

He’s fucked up in the head. No one does this.

he said “nothing” with an unsettling smile

He’s a pervert. You’re not.

he could prove it by revealing

He’s a psycho, no one does this. Ever.

my older brother got into my journal

Another psycho.

“God told me to do it.”

Yep, psycho.

I’m sorry you had to live through this but it’s not a normal behavior. I wish you the best for the future without them though because I know that it can destroy someone.

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@DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

I have Asian parents (we live in the US) and they’re kinda abusive, mostly emotionally, and yes the trying to get in your room all the time was kind of “normal” in my “overton window” of parents. (emphasis on quotes, I’m not saying the “normal” equates to acceptable)

As for invasion of privacy, yes that was a common thing. My mother is constantly try to get access to my phone because she’s “worried about bad influences” or some shit. Like around when I was like 13, 14(?)… That kinda stopped when I got older.

The sexual aspects… idk, they said porn was bad, but I never really had any parental controls on my stuff (the stuff they allowed me to have, technically electronics not “my” things, more like they bought me stuff after I sort of begged for it). For context, Asia really represses the sex-related stuff, especially in China, where we were from, porn is blocked, like you could theoretically go to jail for porn, even of depictions of consenting adults. But even in democratic countries like South Korea, its still blocked (though, VPN access is easier in South Korea).

So yea… I never really told them about the porn… which I eventually kinda stopped anyways because I think I might be just asexual lol. But yea if they found out, they’d think its like “damaging for the brain” or something, they treat it almost like if you chatted with adults strangers or something.

Like “if you watch too much sexual stuff, you’re gonna lose the ability to reproduce” or some stupid shit. I don’t think China even has sex-education lmao. They never even said a thing, until I just randomly mentioned about my mother’s period stuff just as a subtle indicator of “yes, I know how human anatomy works lol”, they never really said a thing. Never had “the talk” lol. Very weird family dynamics in thos aspect.

I never had a journal, didn’t feel safe. I mean, I was very nerdy with codes and stuff so I’d probably have used a code had I been journaling.

My older brother never really dared to go through my stuff ever since I got my own room and like I got older. Like dude I can fight, sure, we both get hurt, but its like Mutually Assured Destruction, wanna start shit, I’ll mess us both up. Still, I worry he might perceive a transgression for something I didn’t do and then “revenge” on such perceived grievance. So yea its kinda like cold war all the time.

But as for the “test your sexuality” stuff, never happened. They kinda just assumed everyone is heterosexual. Religion isn’t that serious in China, so its never as crazy as the American South and the “Christians”. But yes it’s still very hetero-normative society.

My mom joked about “do you have any girlfriends? no? what about gay-friends?” then laughs like its funny or something. But also tells me to focus on school and not romance stuff. I don’t think they oppose romance, but they are more worried about grades. But then again, I’m kinda asexual so I never bother with romance anyways.

If I was gay, I think my mother would, not really shame the gay aspect, but more like the “what about my grandchildren” type of stuff, and be disappointed, and would probably try to use inheritances as leverage (I assume, since this part is hypothetical). Like… being “gay” isn’t really a “sin”, but “continuing the bloodline” is very important somehow, everyone in Asia is obsessed about it. So yeah, on thay aspect, they’ll be disappointed. But I think they’ll still be happy I have a “gay-friend”, they’ll just assume I’ll “eventually become heterosexual again” and this is just gonna become another normal friend.

As for if I was trans… yea no… they’ll think it’s 变态 and a mental illness and would constantly try to “cure” me of it. Or probably disown me for being “broken”. This is less of anti-trans, more like ableism. I mean I have depression and they already treat me like I’m sort of “broken” and they are talking of leaving me out of inheritances lol.

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@higgsboson@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

I dont need to read much past the title. Anyone who uses the term “degeneracy” unironically in trying to control the private lives of others is probably a shitbag and they definitely should be told to fuck off.

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@IronBird@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

what if someone were say to “epstein and all that enabled him/enabled by him are degenerates”?

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@malware@lemmy.zip
· 1 day ago

Bet that’s not normal. But sadly, absent parents are just as damaging. I wish someone stopped me from watching so much porn so early in my life.

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@SARGE@startrek.website
· 1 day ago

“God told me to do it.”

The first time I heard that as a teenager, I made sure nobody ever felt comfortable saying it around me again.

Some mild stripping, knocked over glassware, and “speaking in tongues” later, sorry god made me do it.

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@jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

You were “filled with the holy spirit.” You really couldn’t help it. 🤷‍♂️

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@Oberyn@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

One time some dickweasel in middle of night “invited” themself into my home would not leave bcus “God told them to”

Maybe just me not religious let alone Christian , but if God instructing peops to (go into random strangers homes|invade their privacy) , dœsn’t seem like very trustworthy person to take advise from !

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@mushroommunk@lemmy.today
· 1 day ago

My brother tried your approach, he got an exorcism as Satan was tempting him, lol.

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@HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
· 1 day ago

Your parents are super fucked up and should be treated as such

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@SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

Yeah, you grew up in hell. Sorry 😐

Besides that, “god told me” you should probably keep distance to your family.

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@Fizz@lemmy.nz
· 1 day ago

Yeah not a single thing there is normal. You grew up in an unhinged household.

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@Zephorah@discuss.online
· 1 day ago

This is bizarre behavior on their part, especially your dad. My understanding is reading journals isn’t uncommon but it demonstrates an incredible lack of integrity.

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@village604@adultswim.fan
· 1 day ago

That’s not normal. You were the victim of abuse.

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@meco03211@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

It kinda sounds like you’re doing your best to just live your life and that’s what they are so intrusive over. Sounds more like they want you to force yourself to suffer for religion as they have and it pisses them off that you’re doing you (figuratively and literally). I’d guess they are very sexually repressed.

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@sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

My dad DOES have a tendency to make an unusual amount of phallic jokes, to the point where one day I responded with “You know, it’s okay to be bi, you can just say it” and boy he did NOT like that

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@Spacehooks@reddthat.com
· 1 day ago

Brother Is just a bully so thats simple. But i wonder why dad was upset op isint gay. I can think of a few reasons and none are good.

In cases like these is always better to want to distance from family. Also 200% prep any woman to before meeting family. I read enough stories that if they hold any animosity they may try bring up anything prove they are right and justify hate.

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@sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

But i wonder why dad was upset op isint gay.

Every day, my dad liked to call me the f-slur and threaten to kill me or kick me out of the house “if he found out” I was gay. Apparently, I wasn’t in on the joke: in his head, he ALREADY KNEW I was gay, and so his words weren’t meant to prevent me from being gay, but rather to make me terrified of him.

It seems like he was angry because he lost a critical control mechanism over me and desperately sought to bring it back. I will never forget how shocked he looked when he saw me actually happy for the first time in years and I playfully deflected his insults instead of engaging with them. He sort of shut down and became depressed for a couple days before he came up with a new way to control me.

It seems that there is nothing that he and my brother hate more than my genuine happiness. Since they believe that they define who I am, how I feel, and what I am capable of, any feelings I am “not supposed” to feel will be violently crushed by them.

I am not supposed to be happy.

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@LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

I think you put it well already. Those people have issues. Try to build as much independence as possible, and run. This has nothing to do with conservatism or religion (other than maybe weaponizing those things), and everything with manipulation and mental illness.

As I said it in another comment: Run, don’t walk. You owe them nothing. But you owe yourself and the good people you met / can meet to live a good life.

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@Spacehooks@reddthat.com
· 1 day ago

Understanding they need to feel this way but you dont need to be part of it is major. That is far more than others your age have been able to do. Find revenge by solidifying that happy life without them. It will remind them how useless they are without any cost to you. Win win.

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@CannonFodder@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

Your brother is likely a pedo. God here - I instruct you to report him and get the police to search his computer

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@sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago
  • Fetishizes female submission and powerlessness
  • Shows interest in “petite” women almost 2 feet shorter than him
  • Values women for how “pretty” they look
  • Says the Epstein situation "doesn’t matter"
  • Likes to sneak into other people’s private spaces without consent

I gotta hand it to you God, I think you might be onto something

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@Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

That’s incredibly controlling behavior from them. The privacy violations are egregious.

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@odd@scribe.disroot.org
· 1 day ago

I grew up hardcore conservative, southern baptist, very anti non-straight etc etc.

What you just described would appall my bible thumbing parents.

My folks found me looking at “objectionable” porn too. They didn’t get weird about it. The old man just talked with me about sexuality and privacy and of course God as well.

My upbringing sucked. And I have a lot of issues with my folks. But what you’re describing went beyond even what I went through, and I thought my folks were fully crazy.

Good luck fam. You’ll be alright.

They used their religion to justify callous behavior and invasions of privacy.

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@CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
· 1 day ago

My folks found me looking at “objectionable” porn too. They didn’t get weird about it. The old man just talked with me about sexuality and privacy and of course God as well.

See, religious disagreements aside that sounds like a completely healthy approach. I’m guessing that’s better than most parents manage, regardless of beliefs.

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@nymnympseudonym@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

ua0BxKqiZhHqmte.jpeg

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@zloubida@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

Only religion? The State is 1000x worse in this regard, and it doesn’t need religion.

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@CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
· 1 day ago

Yeah, you don’t need the supernatural to fill that particular niche. IIRC people have done questionable things in the name of anarchism as well.

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@Dionysus@leminal.space
· 1 day ago

Seems like a strawman argument.

States have used religion and are often driven by it, and incorporate it.

Religion isn’t just worship of an invisible creator, religions exist following men.

Power and the Human Condition are ultimately the cause. Religions, states, all the infrastructure and economy and common ideology… It serves to control the population and ensure power.

A state that co-ops religion or a state that tries to force secularism are still going to do what they’re going to do, it’s the people and their intents.

Religion, government… They’re all tools that can be used depending on the people in charge.

Do we need government? Go ahead and debate.

Do we need religion? I’m going to say no, change my mind.

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@zloubida@sh.itjust.works
· 1 day ago

I agree with your message, which seems to confirm mine. His yours makes mine a strawman?

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@nymnympseudonym@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

Anyone who thinks the State is not very often also Religion has not visited North Korea, Iran, Russia, or certain parts of the US South

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@RagnarokOnline@programming.dev
· 1 day ago

That’s not normal behavior for family members

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@kelpie_returns@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

Your parents sound nuts. Sorry you had love with that, dude. I had some different but not all that different stuff as a kid, and therapy has been a really useful tool for unpacking those experiences and turning them into something a bit more useful. Would highly recommend it if you haven’t tried yet. Shit so cash

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@sprigatito_bread@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

What has therapy been like for you? I’ve never done therapy before, and I’m kind of worried they’ll try to criticize and gaslight me into playing nice with people who I’m 90% sure are narcissists or try to get me to ignore the limitations that my health problems give me. (But then again, I can’t help but notice that I was socially conditioned to expect shame, punishment, and destructive guidance if I ask for help.)

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@derek@infosec.pub
· 1 day ago

You’ve got some excellent replies to this question already. I want to add something a therapist told me about therapy that I’ve found helpful.

Therapy isn’t about fixing everything that’s “wrong”. It’s mostly about identifying coping mechanisms we developed during childhood which no longer work for us as adults. Different techniques are used to help clients start opening up to doing therapeutic work or starting it in earnest. The goal though, regardless of the technique, is for the client to know themselves better and use that knowledge to build better emotional and social tools. To replace the coping mechanisms we’ve outgrown with better ones.

A comparison I’ve made is that therapy is like working with an occupational therapist. What’s “best” is conditional and is often usefully defined by what we find difficult or limiting. The best way to pick up something we’ve dropped varies person to person. The important bit is having healthy ways of picking it up again (with or without direct assistance).

Therapy ought to focus on self-understanding which helps us function in reality. In my experience most modern therapists advocate for this even if they aren’t forward about it.

Any therapist who councils you to capitulate to narcissists or ignore your disability should be reported to the relevant licensing authority for negligence at a minimum.

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@kelpie_returns@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

Very late to answering this it seems, but basically him and I just discuss things about my life while he chimes in with different perspectives and advice (when appropriate). Each session is a bit different tho and sometimes he’ll give me “homework” if he thinks I’m struggling to see certain ideas from certain angles. This somet8mes means a worksheet and it sometimes means asking myself a certain question or wuestions when i notice myself or others hehaving in certain ways.

Hated that shit at first, but it’s actually kind of fun to peel back the layers and learn something new through it these days. Usually. Sometimes I forget and he will occassionally get a bit more direct about what he was trying to insinuate me toward, because a good therapist puts in the effort to meet you where you need to be met, while still pushing you to rise a little higher each day.

The first time I tried therapy was a different story (they were very presumptuous and certain of their correctness on these presumptions, basically. The exact kind of person that I tend to find incredibly annoying and unhelpful) so it was only a couple sessions with them before I decided it was just a really bad match and got tf out of there. Like others have said, the option to disconnect and try again with a different professional is always there, too. Sometimes, it is very necessary to take advantage of that.

That last line in your comment could potentially be a great jumping off point were you to try therapy. Making it clear what you fear about it right along with what you hope it could help with; that’s a great place to kick things off with a level-headed and helpfully-inclined talk therapist. And many of them (tho def not all) are offering exactly that.

Best of luck with whatever comes next for you, stranger!

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@TheMadCodger@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

I grew up in a crazy Christian environment, really messed with me for a long time. Go to therapy. You don’t have to stick with the first person you try, and it took me a few to find the right person to just click with. But you’re gonna need to talk this shit out. It’ll be rough, but worth it in the end. A good therapist will listen and ask questions, but they’re not going to make you do anything, least of all make ammends with people who are a bad influence on your life. You got this.

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@ButteryMonkey@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

You are 100% allowed to ask for a different therapist, and tell them honestly what about the first one didn’t work for you.

Think of them as someone you hire, like a construction contractor building a new addition for you. If they do a bad job for your needs, fire them and hire someone else, just like you would if they disregarded your hypothetical missing leg while designing the layout, and gave you lots of stairs. Stairs don’t help you, even if they might be fine or even desired for someone else, just like a therapist who would criticize you or try to gaslight you isn’t helpful to you.

It might take a few tries, but it’s definitely worth it to find the right person if it’s not the first one.

My first ever therapist was super religious, and told me that it was better for me to be bored and vaguely unhappy in my relationship than to be alone (I’m a woman so..). She also told me I need to at least be spiritual, or I’d never get over my depression (incidentally went away when the relationship did.. funny, that..) I was raised without religion, and her comment about my relationship gave me the ick, so I found a different one. And that one was a lot better.

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@CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
· 1 day ago

(But then again, I can’t help but notice that I was socially conditioned to expect shame, punishment, and destructive guidance if I ask for help.)

This.

They’re always gentle in my experience, even when they’re trying to get you to question something you’ve assumed. Maybe they will say you should give people more of a chance, once they get to know your situation. But, if you just say no, worst case scenario they won’t have any other ideas. And I can’t imagine they’d tell you to deliberately hang around a narcissist.

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@mushroommunk@lemmy.today
· 1 day ago

I second the therapy, did wonders having grown up in a very similar environment to you. You definitely need to find the right therapist as the others said. Took me three to find the right one and my wife is on her fifth (but has been with that therapist for a while now).

You need to know what you want out of the therapy and be clear about yourself and willing to do the work. And yes, avoid Christian counselors

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@TheRealKuni@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

Bruh. Try therapy. Air those very concerns if you’re worried about them.

The way I like to think about therapy is you’re paying for access to a second brain, a well-trained one, to help you think through stuff. A good therapist guides you instead of leading you.

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@CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
· 1 day ago

Yes, therapists actually seem to love it when you tell them about your feelings about therapy.

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@ragingHungryPanda@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com
· 1 day ago

The thing with therapists is that you need to find one that works for you, but that also takes experience.

But I think that if you avoid Christian counselors, you’ll more likey avoid that. My experience with Christian ones is that they tend to be more on the side of making you look the part rather than being your true self, since you know, your true self is despicable in the eyes of God and all.

I think it you can afford it, going over these things with a professional can help you work through things or help you identify how that’s affected you in ways you may not have thought.

and remember, you can always change therapists (just avoid changing because they challenge you)

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@JoMiran@lemmy.ml
· 1 day ago

Yep. Sounds like you grew up in hell.

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@circledot@feddit.org
· 1 day ago

Hell

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@Greg@lemmy.ca
· 1 day ago

That’s not normal. I’m sorry you had to go through that mate.

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@serpineslair@lemmy.world
· 1 day ago

That sounds pretty fucked tbh.

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@Overspark@piefed.social
· 1 day ago

Sounds pretty fucked up to me. Normal people will just accept you for who you are, whatever that is. Well, unless you’re a serial killer or something, but as long as we’re talking about consensual sexual preferences they should stay well out of your stuff.

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