Sadly I grew up in a similar situation, my father was emotionally abusive to me and the rest of the family joined in with him to keep him from turning on them as well, I think. I was fat, stupid, lazy, untrustworthy liar and a bad person. When I was bullied at school, they told me it was my own fault. I didn’t go on to college because they had me so convinced I was too stupid to understand the classes.

This was many years ago. Basically, I escaped them. I left home as soon as I could, like 17-18 and never went back. It wasn’t easy. There were brief periods where I was homeless. However those times helped show me that they were not only wrong, but that how they treated me was wrong (this was long before the internet existed).

I earned my associates degree in a stem field when I was 48 and have a really good job now that I am proud of. I’ve gotten farther than I ever thought I would. And I can truly say that I did all of it, with zero help from anyone. I sometimes wonder what I could have been if I had a loving, supportive family.

It damaged me emotionally in some ways ngl but overall it taught me the value of persistence and not to give up on myself.

I have gone out of my way to make sure they can’t find me. Someone found me about 10 years ago. To ask me for money.