I just felt very different from them. I also never felt like I could discuss how I felt because everything I was was things that they stigmatized. I was introverted and daydreamed a lot and my parents would take me to neurologists constantly to figure out why. I found medical forms where they would list my flaws as “introverted” and they’d not allow me to do any hobbies myself because it wasn’t good enough. Any painting I started they would paint over themselves and then hang up and tell people I made it. I wasn’t allowed creative freedom on school projects and they’d do everything for me to make sure it was impressive.

I became pretty depressed because of the lack of understanding of me as a person. When they called me cute I would scratch up my arms, I didn’t want to wear braces because I thought crooked teeth reflected my personality better, at the age of 7 I would only wear black. I couldn’t express my personality through words because I felt like my parents were disgusted by me and wanted me to be someone else, an extension of them and not my own person. So I felt I could only express it indirectly