Looking for someone who went to something similar as me (sibling abuse) and wants a penpal.

Hey, thanks for responding! [And sorry it took me this long to respond :/] I feel like it might be a good idea for me to share my story so you kinda know what's going on with me.. Based on that you can decide if you want to keep talking to me :)

Basically what started this whole mess was after my parents got divorced I went to go live with my father. He had a full time job, his own company on the side, had gone back to school and was trying to raise my three siblings and me, so he became very absent in our lives. My mum became homeless so she wasn't around a lot either. My oldest two siblings had their own things going on so I was left in the care of my [then] 12-year-old brother. He became addicted to drugs and hadn't really developed mentally since our parents divorce, because of this [according to a psychologist he saw years later] he didn't really feel guilt and he abused me for years. It was always just physical [hitting, kicking, trying to throw me down the stairs, bruising my wrists and fingers and he once grabbed a knife and threatened to kill me which I think caused the (admittedly self-diagnosed) PTSD].

I turned to Reddit for advice because I don't feel comfortable talking to a therapist. There are so many people who have gone through things way worse than this so I feel like they'll just think I'm overreacting and being melodramatic. I'm just looking for a penpal who is more open-minded than that and can maybe [hopefully] be there for me until I am ready.

So.. I would just love to hear what kind of sympoms you've experienced and what made you decide to get help. If you don't want to share that it's fine though, just whatever you're comfortable with :)

/r/ptsd Thread Parent