Thanks, I'm glad I did too. It's one of many things that probably caused me to not come out sooner.
What advice would you give any other kids trying to escape that kind of situation?
CW abuse
Survive until you can leave.
Be kind to yourself and take care of your health as much as you can.
You are beautiful. Everything that is happening is not your fault.
Your parents are not safe if they are doing things like this to you. You owe them nothing.
Find friends wherever you can. I spent a lot of time ditching church to hang at skate parks and also making friends online.
Learn to manipulate people in power into thinking that you aren't worth their time or are on their side.
Don't compromise who you are internally, but put up whatever appearance you need to show for them to not hurt you.
** Note: This is really hard to do. I played a role to keep myself safe, but I wound up getting so good at it I thought I was a cishet man. Be careful.
If your parents are willing to teach you things you can verify as outright lies, then you should just assume everything they tell you is a lie unless you want to bother verifying.
Trust is good and beautiful. Don't let them take that from you. There are a lot of good people.
Your parents are weak. They are probably behaving the way they are because they were also abused. That isn't your problem. Don't waste time feeling sympathy for their toxicity.
Lie to your parents and steal everything you can from them to make sure you get out of their house with as much economic security as you can.
Sometimes parents get much less shitty when they don't have power over you anymore. That still doesn't mean they are safe, it just means they don't think they can control you the same way they used to.
You can completely just stop talking to them once you're free and never talk to them again. Everyone chooses their family, some people just wind up keeping the cards they got dealt instead of looking through the deck and picking a better hand.
Find interests and hobbies that are yours and focus on them. This can be literally anything. Just reinforce your own identity in small ways.
Get therapy with a secular therapist as soon as you can. I prefer CBT, ACT, or DBT, but any therapist who is trans positive probably has their shit together.
It's going to be okay and you're going to build a good life once you're free.
Life is beautiful and so satisfying, stay curious about the future.
This list got really heavy, sorry. Hopefully that was helpful anyway. :soviet-heart:
I'm glad you survived all that bullshit, Bolshe. What advice would you give any other kids trying to escape that kind of situation?
Thanks, I'm glad I did too. It's one of many things that probably caused me to not come out sooner.
CW abuse
This list got really heavy, sorry. Hopefully that was helpful anyway. :soviet-heart: