Where I'm at- long, rambling

Where I'm at- long, rambling

Galapogos

Registrant
I only recently found this site. Not sure where to begin, maybe with where Im at? Im 38. I suffered SA from my mother, till I was 8 or 9, which I only just realized a couple of weeks ago. When I was 10 or 11 my second perp started grooming me, he was 14 or 15. Maybe Ill put that in a separate post.
I live alone in a tiny studio apartment. In the last 17 years Ive held a series of low paying dead end jobs, right now Ive been unemployed for 6 months. I havent had much confidence to look for work. I spend most of my time alone. Im depressed a lot of the time.
Ive never been in a relationship, never dated, never had sex with a woman, never kissed anyone, male or female. I only have a few friends, but no close friends, Ive never told anyone about my past. Im afraid to get close to people, to let my guard down. I thought I was gay for a long time, now maybe Im bi. I never came out, never felt any gay pride. In my late 20s I experimented with anonymous sex, cruising the campus library. Every three or four months Id have a brief encounter, a hand-job is the crude term, a few times I tried oral. Id feel shame and self-loathing after. About 3 years ago I discovered I had herpes, both genital and oral, and went into an even deeper depression. I havent had any kind of sexual contact since then.
I have a fear of intimacy, of being vulnerable. I cant handle people who try to control me, when I feel like someone is trying to manipulate me I get freaked out.
I dont know how to give receive hugs, or any kind of friendly physical contact. I misinterpret it, either it feels like a violation and it creeps me out, or if its someone Im attracted to, I think maybe it means more than it does.
In high school and college Id have these huge crushes on my friends, but I never said anything, didnt share my feelings. Except sometimes Id be way too needy and theyd pull away.
I tried therapy for a short time in college, it was free at the student health center and my family didnt have to know. The therapist was trying to get me to work toward coming out, but I didnt feel ready to be that open. At the first meeting I told him Id been celibate for the past several years. He kind of smiled, acted surprised, oh really? that bothered me. I think I went 8 or 9 times, then spring term ended. We didnt discuss my abuse. I didnt resume in the fall. Later I saw him coming out of campus library mens room. We exchanged a couple of sentences, I dont remember. Sometimes I see him around town and ignore him.
When I was 21 or 22 I found myself attracted to one of my friends girlfriends, which confused me. I had a crush on her. She was a very grounded person, very supportive, empathetic (is that a word?) attractive, and funny. Most of the time I have a negative reaction to female affection, but not with her, though a hug is all we ever shared. She finished school, left for grad school with her boyfriend.
My parents are like the parents on the tv show Everybdy Loves Raymond, except theyre not funny. Overbearing controlling mom, spineless emotionally distant father. I have an older brother, most of my childhood memories are of him tormenting me, beating me up, berating me. Hes a successful republican business owner now, I talk to him as little as possible.
Reading this over I seem pretty pathetic, I guess I live in denial most of the time. I posted in this forum mostly because I wanted more people to read it. Ill probably put future postings in the Gay forum, though it doesnt seem to be visited that much.

Thanks for reading my rambling post,

-Eric
 
Eric
I think you're possibly in the right forum, for now at least. Feeling confusion over our sexual orientation is a common problem for Survivors, and I think that we should do the work for our abuse first, then we're in a better place to finally decide our orientation.

Part of that work on the abuse does need to include therapy, in my view anyway, and that therapy should be done by someone who specialises in, or has very good knowledge of, the problems of Survivors.

I found that over 30 years of trying to 'cure' myself all I had actually done was go around in ever decreasing circles. All I did was get worse.
Therapy didn't give me a 'cure', but it did lead me to think differently and find new answers to my old questions.

It's not easy, but it's worth the effort.

Dave
 
Thanks for the feedback, and thank you to those that sent PM's.

I posted, and then I lurked for awhile, and then I stayed away for awhile.
Thinking about dealing with my SA, it feels like a mountain I really don't want to climb. But I can't
get away from it, can't go around it, can't get out of it's shadow. I'm trying to remember I
don't have to do it all at once.
I'm glad this site is here (tho' I wish it didn't have to be), it's a good reality check for me to see I'm not the only one who
feels like I do.
I'm leaving for a few days to visit my family, including my mom, which will be strange. I
haven't confronted her about her actions, not sure when, or if, I will. I'll try to post sometime next week.

take care
 
Hi Eric - I noticed that your original post was on April 24th (my birthday!), then nothing since then.

I wanted to take the opportunity to welcome you since I missed your first post. Reading through what you wrote. I felt like I could have written it myself, for the most part. Only real differences are that I have managed to maintain a long-term relationship with my wife of 20 years. And while my sexual abusers were not family, I was physically and emotionally and psychologically abused by both parents. A domineering mother and spineless, drunk, violent father.

Many of our experiences as survivors are eerily similar, cookie-cutter almost. I don't know if you've read it, but Victims No Longer by Mike Lew is a book that helped me tremendously when I was first coming to terms with my abuse. It showed me that my responses to my abuse were things that I had been kicking myself for, for years. Acting out sexually, drinking and drugging, difficulty with trust and relationships. I too thought I had 'crushes' on my friends in school, male and female. But that was just a response to not understanding what true affection is. I used to get all weirded out by hugs and physical acts of affection, always thinking someone wanted more from me.

These things can pass over time, but they require a lot of work. And I whole heartedly agree with LLoydy with regard to therapy. A therapist who is well versed in the aftermath of child sex abuse can be of great help. I will ALWAYS be forever grateful for my therapist. She has helped me make sense of the seemingly non-sensical.

I hope to see you post more, when you're comfortable doing it. Sharing with others, others who know what you're going through, can ease many burdens. And always feel free to PM me, I'm a good listener.

Peace, for now - John
 
Eric
glad to see you came back, maybe it's time to climb that mountain?

Support is always helpful, actually it's essential, so let us guys here act as your own personal Sherpa.

Dave
 
Back
Top