Mothering Forum banner

Not a teen anymore but not fully adult either with too many problems

Tags
teens
840 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  JollyGG 
#1 ·
Hi
smile.gif


I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for my questions and worries but I'd like to know what you all think. I've been reading this forum for a long time to see how other parents interact with their children while secretly wishing my own parents could be more like that. I'm not a teen anymore but I'm still under 21 and I've only just started to realize how many issues I've got and it's very hard to deal with them on my own. And there is absolutely no one I could talk to about them, in person.

Honestly, I don't even know where to start. My main problem seems to be at the moment that I finally realized I was gay, and I started to feel sexually attracted to women and have innocent (but to me upsetting) dreams about them every night. I feel incredibly guilty and scared of it all. Then there's the fact that I've had eating disorders for the last five years. I'm doing okay now compared to how it used to be but I'm still not sure if I'm over it. I know this is my way of dealing with things, this and cutting but I'd rather not go into these topics because they are not the real problems, but my coping methods.

I have so much self-hatred and self-disgust for my body, it makes me sad. I hate being unable to control what it does and I think that started with puberty. You see, my mother never told me what was going to happen to my body, I only had a 10 minute very awkward talk with her when my body was already going through some major changes. All of it was very unexpected and I didn't want it to happen. And I'm not sure if I ever accepted it. I'm constantly terrified my body will let me down in one way or another.

I really don't know what else to say. I think that is mostly it. I have talked about some of my issues (mainly being a lesbian) with others on the internet but I don't feel like it helped me in the way I'd hoped it would. If I was your daughter/sister/cousin/friend/student/etc., what would you tell me? What advice could you give me? Please don't say I should talk to a psychologist because I've already done that and it ended terribly, I'm not sure I'll ever have the courage to open up like that again only to be disappointed and to be told I don't know what I'm talking about, and that I'm sick (for being gay). I regularly cut myself, starve myself, deprive myself of water and sleep because of things I do not want to feel.

I just want to be told that it's going to be alright and that someone would want me and that I'm not unbearable (as my mother tells me all the time). I don't want to be a disappointment, I want to be perfect but I know that's not possible. But I am scared to be flawed and imperfect because I'm afraid people would pick on me even more. I was bullied terribly in school and no one helped me.

I am aware that this is my life and I have to life it the way I want and not how others want me to. Because in the end, they only see 10% of it and the rest is up to me to deal with. But I honestly have no idea what to do anymore. I hate my body so much that sometimes I'm ready to die. I'm not suicidal most of the time, you don't have to worry about that when giving an answer, I don't want the focus to be on that. I know all the effects and causes, but I need to understand more about them and how to deal with them. I'm going away to university in less than a months and I don't want to find myself dead just because I couldn't deal with life (and my inevitable attractions to women).

Thank you for reading, it was a very long post, I'm sorry. (If this not the right place for it, please delete the thread.)
 
See less See more
1
#2 ·
Welcome.gif
and BIG
hug2.gif


i am not sure if this is the online place that can help you completely.

do you have an LGBT community in your city? can you go there? or even a community online around you.

are things going to be alright?

yes they are. they always are. you can and will survive - provided you take action and accept.

things may not work out the way you might want it to, but that doesnt mean you are a failure.

you have to see life as an adventure. really believe it. taking you on this unknown journey.

i have survived, because i asked for help when i needed it - medical or otherwise. i took care of myself. and things worked out.

took many years to figure all this out. remember you wont truly grow up to the person you really are till you are around 40. in the meantime you try all different sorts of things.

but for right now continue what you are doing. reaching out to people and asking for help.

according to me it sounds like what you need is not just an online community - but people IRL who you can relate to.

and that's the hard part. YOU have to do what it takes to look for them and find them.

you are not meant to do this alone.

yes you will be alright!!! your mom seems to have no clue who you are. do her words define who you are or do you define that yourself? who are you? according to yourself not according to anyone else.
 
#3 ·
Hi Notamaom,

A lot of depression and self-hurting behavior is unacknowledged or suppressed anger. So, I would advise you to allow yourself to see feel angry at times, and try to direct it outward - who are you angry with?

I think that the pain and anger and depression are also a result of your oppression as a woman, and as a lesbian woman. I can't tell you that the oppression and pain are not there, but I can say that if you see your situation as not something wrong with you, and not really a result of who you are as an individual, but a common problem, shared with many women. Read up on feminism

Also, remember these things: You don't have to be perfect to be love & that many your people aged 21 have yet to find true love.

A good resource::

http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/default.asp

Especially:

Resources for LGBTQ Youth

http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/excerpt.asp?id=113

Common reactions to violence...., or harassment

http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=8&compID=56
 
#4 ·
University is an awesome time in life. It's a place where exploration of your self is not only accepted but actively encouraged. You'll find so many resources and so many new opportunities at your disposal on a campus. I'm sure their is a LGBTQ on campus. There is also likely medical and counseling available to you. Not all counseling is the same and it sometimes takes time to find someone who is a good fit. There are also programs, groups, and people who you will meet at college who will be instrumental in helping you become who you will be. Even my rural midwestern state college had all the above mentioned resources.

Honestly headed to college and escaping the narrow box that you are currently in is going to be great. By headed there it sounds like you are already headed on the right path.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top