Greetings,
I am pleased to have found this site and have begun reading the vast store of information you have assembled. I have sought a support group on the advice of my psychiastrist as a means to help me cope between our bi-weekly sessions. I am in the early stages of dynamic based psychotherapy. I suffer from symptoms related to childhood and subsequent trauma.
My mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia before I was bom. Up until I was 6 years old I lived with my maternal grandparents and my mother who was in and out of mental institution. When I was 7 I was told that I was going to live with my father and two older sisters who I had never met. A few days later I was picked up by this strange man, taken on an airplane and dropped into a family of complete strangers. Along with my two sisters there was another girl 2 years younger than I was and a woman that everyone was calling 'Mom'. I was told nothing. The woman (my new stepmother) was very strict and 'proper'. Less than 3 years later we had moved and to a new country, and lost our home and all of our possessions in a housefire. The step-sister that shared the same bedroom was killed in the fire.
I was an island in all of this tragedy surrounded by virtual strangers who were all mired in their own distress.
This set the stage for an adult life of chaos and abusive relationships from which I am now on the road to recovery.
My current situation/environment is ideal, I am where I want to be, with a wonderful husband, retired on a hobby farm with animals I adore.
Healing.
Welcome to the forum. :heythere:
The lack of foundation and aloneness of your childhood is profound and heartbreaking. Glad you are currently in a safe place and healing.
Hello, delighted to meet you! :wave:
I'm sorry that you suffered so much, but I'm glad you're in a safe place now and on the road to recovery. I'm sure being on this forum will support you in that.
Very happy you feel you are healing! It gives me hope. We all go through such difficulties when we're so little.