Confused *spoilers child abuse mentioned*

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Mr Seal The Albatros said:
cumulus.james said:
Thanks a lot. I am sort of try to get on with my life, but it is hard. I was doing a part time degree with the Open University untill recently, I am interested in all sorts of topics and I buy lots of books but I just seem to be punishing myself now by not even picking up and reading a book something I really enjoyt and am desperately interested in. I go along to the drugs and alcahol place and I guess thats a start. I feel I should aim to give up drinking first, then start to do some exercise then try to expose myself to social situations and eventually aim to get a job. I know I will never have a partner, but I do hope that one day I can have a friend.

You sound like you still want to keep trying to make things better. Even better, you've come up with a plan for it. That's good. If you keep that determination, in time, you will achieve those goals. I wish you all the best. You sound like an awesome guy and your determination to fix things is quite admirable.

hey thanks for the reply,

The only reason I keep going is that when al that stuff started to happen and I dropped out of school I was very into science and maths. So I started to study science and maths with the OU a couple of years ago. I feel like I should have had this diferent life where I got my GCSE's and A Levels and that and had a career. I am an old daft alcaholic now, but I have to believe it is still possible to get my degree and get a job and get back out into the world.
 
It's not your fault for lots of reasons. The times they knew your age (or the avarage age of the people entering the toilet at that particular time of the day), they would know very well that it's illegal, immoral and illogical. You also wouldn't necessarily have known exactly what it was the first time. It might have been the case that you didn't understand what it was the times following it as well.

I had no idea why my body did the things it did until I was over 10 and taught about it in school.

When it comes to sexual things, if you're regularly and persistently presented with the opportunity and invited against your will, sometimes you cave in - all it takes is for you to be feeling down on a particular day or for the persistent invitations to gradually sway you. That might be considered grooming in a way.

Doing it multiple times when you know what it is isn't your fault either because there are psychological reasons for sticking with what you know, such as escapism by repetition and that the nature of sex is that your brain can tell you not to do it again but your hormones can tell you something else.

These sites might help you I'm not sure:

https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/help-victims/ive-been-affected/childhood-abuse
http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/abuse/sexual-abuse/

I think you're being strong and you have the right attitude working through the effects the way you are. You still have decades to achieve your dreams if you work through your problems now. Plenty of people retrain and change careers through education at your age (or even later at 40).
 
I've spent a long time reading this thread. I've spent an hour reading it in fact and I can honestly say that few threads on there touch me like yours has.

First, I want to say that it took courage to post this. Am I right by sensing that these experiences have been painful for you? It's often difficult to write about pain and put ourselves up to other people's judgment (at least it is extremely difficult for me). So, yes, you were courageous in posting this.

I can relate so much to your guilt that you've experienced. :( It's like no matter what you do, you can't get away from it. It haunts you and that sucks. Then it makes you feel like the dirt on the ground, the dirt under someone's shoe, like a shitbag without any value. Like there is nobody worse than you and you're beyond hope and redemption.

On another bright note, you have a conscience. :)

A thought: The alcohol may be messing with your bipolar disorder and worsening your moods. Maybe you already know this. This could help lessen some of your psychological pain if you were able to stop drinking.
 
Therapon said:
It's not your fault for lots of reasons. The times they knew your age (or the avarage age of the people entering the toilet at that particular time of the day), they would know very well that it's illegal, immoral and illogical. You also wouldn't necessarily have known exactly what it was the first time. It might have been the case that you didn't understand what it was the times following it as well.

I had no idea why my body did the things it did until I was over 10 and taught about it in school.

When it comes to sexual things, if you're regularly and persistently presented with the opportunity and invited against your will, sometimes you cave in - all it takes is for you to be feeling down on a particular day or for the persistent invitations to gradually sway you. That might be considered grooming in a way.

Doing it multiple times when you know what it is isn't your fault either because there are psychological reasons for sticking with what you know, such as escapism by repetition and that the nature of sex is that your brain can tell you not to do it again but your hormones can tell you something else.

These sites might help you I'm not sure:

https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/help-victims/ive-been-affected/childhood-abuse
http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/guides-to-support-and-services/abuse/sexual-abuse/

I think you're being strong and you have the right attitude working through the effects the way you are. You still have decades to achieve your dreams if you work through your problems now. Plenty of people retrain and change careers through education at your age (or even later at 40).

Hey thanks for the reply. They allways knew my age. I am working on a poem about that. It was all they asked, my age, never my name. But in thinking about it I feel I was targeted and groomed. The public toilets where this stuff went on were allways in places shoolkids might go, and I recently remeberd that they ere allways busiest with adult men 'cruising' around 3 - 4.30 pm, chucking out time for school. Also i wasent the only boy to get drawn into this.

I read the police knew about this practise since 1950 - how come at no time did they think 'honeysuckle schoolboys go in there?'

But yeh, I had a bad and unhappy homelife and after I dropped out of school this depravity became all I had.

I found a site called male survivors trust and that was really painfull to look at, because when it listed the effects of child abuse I seem to have the extremes of all of them, but up until a few months ago I never even knew I was abused. There were these coming of age movies that normalized and romantisized it, like one I saw when I was about 15 called 'for a lost soldier' about a 12 yr old boy who has sex with a soldier. Then I got a penpal who was gay and we had both been doing stuff with adults from a young age and we would discuss anal sex and how it hurt and gave you a stomach ache and stuff. So it was all normalized.

Wasent really till that catholic church stuff people started to think 'blimey - boys get abused too'. By then I was already 30. So understood what had happened until now.


SophiaGrace said:
I've spent a long time reading this thread. I've spent an hour reading it in fact and I can honestly say that few threads on there touch me like yours has.

First, I want to say that it took courage to post this. Am I right by sensing that these experiences have been painful for you? It's often difficult to write about pain and put ourselves up to other people's judgment (at least it is extremely difficult for me). So, yes, you were courageous in posting this.

I can relate so much to your guilt that you've experienced. :( It's like no matter what you do, you can't get away from it. It haunts you and that sucks. Then it makes you feel like the dirt on the ground, the dirt under someone's shoe, like a shitbag without any value. Like there is nobody worse than you and you're beyond hope and redemption.

On another bright note, you have a conscience. :)

A thought: The alcohol may be messing with your bipolar disorder and worsening your moods. Maybe you already know this. This could help lessen some of your psychological pain if you were able to stop drinking.

Hi SpohiaGrace, thanks a lot for the reply. I think I remeber you from when I used to come on here before.

I can't honestly accept that I had courage in making this post. In attepmting to 'deal' with it I have done some very bad things, and accumulated a lot of regret. I really made the post out of desperation because I have this stuff going round in my head all day and there is not really anyone who understands. Only other underage rentboys and I don't know how to find one of those! (and trying to do so would land me on a register).

Your right that it haunts me. I get flashbacks of the blood after the first time. But somehow I got into it and spent the next 10 years actively seeking out painful sex. I don't really understand that. The thought of being caused pain during sex still causes me to become aroused. I allways felt dirty and disgusting about myself and that did not help me to accept being gay, because I thought I was dirty and disgusting and that all gays were dirty and disgusting. So I could not manage to maintain a relationship. Never had a long term partner.

I do know the alcahol worsens the depressive part of my bipolar, but it also dampens the manic part and I get terrified of becoming too manic. I don't take the pills, they are horrific. You are no better than a rotting vegetable when you are on those.

I know what I need to do, I need to stop drinking, start going to the gym again, get back to my university course and start going back into the world (I barely leave my flat these days). But I just cant seem to do any of it. Every day I drink I think to myself 'this is the last day' then when I do it again I think 'I'll just do it this one more time, just to say goodbye to it'. But I can't seem to get out of that pattern.

I think people don't understand what it is like to feel so worthless that you hardly care about yourself or what happens to you. I am well aware of what I should do to change my life for the better, but I don't care about myself and no one else does. So it's like whats the point? Something might make me feel better but I don't care about me so why bother?
 
It's such bullshit that you weren't protected even though the cops knew about it.

Ugh.

And yes, I'm well aware of how utterly utterly selfish people can be when sex is involved. "Oh, you aren't underage? Cool." that's all they care about (apparently in your case they were attracted to underage boys, but in my experience as long as you aren't under 18, that's all they care about. Your case seems to be about pedophilia.). I'm not saying that people on this forum when they want sex, are like that, but rather if you go onto sex websites like craigslist, that's how people are. And mostly these people don't even stop to consider what negative effects having sex could have upon you or upon them. They are just so ******* full of their own wants and desire, that they don't even see you as human.

It's disgusting.

I hurt for you. :(
 
i've read everything here and my gut says this is a troll...and before YOU jump on my back...i have an opinion just as everyone has...real life abuse is NOT written as an unknown as a rule...so, therefore i dub this a troll...if not?..i do apologize..just my 2 cents...
 
DVEUS said:
i've read everything here and my gut says this is a troll...and before YOU jump on my back...i have an opinion just as everyone has...real life abuse is NOT written as an unknown as a rule...so, therefore i dub this a troll...if not?..i do apologize..just my 2 cents...

A troll? Maybe you didn't notice that the OP has been here since 2008 and has over 400 posts.
 
Seems pretty genuine to me, not that I'm an expert.

And Cumulus, its not true that no one cares about you. I certainly care that someone has suffered like you have, and I think other people who have commented here do to.
 
Sci-Fi said:
DVEUS said:
i've read everything here and my gut says this is a troll...and before YOU jump on my back...i have an opinion just as everyone has...real life abuse is NOT written as an unknown as a rule...so, therefore i dub this a troll...if not?..i do apologize..just my 2 cents...

A troll? Maybe you didn't notice that the OP has been here since 2008 and has over 400 posts.

It's always safer to assume truth IMO anyways in situations like this online rather than hurting a child abuse survivor who no one listened to or helped for years.

Don't want to repeat the experience of not being heard you see...


cumulus.james said:
Hi SpohiaGrace, thanks a lot for the reply. I think I remeber you from when I used to come on here before.

I can't honestly accept that I had courage in making this post. In attepmting to 'deal' with it I have done some very bad things, and accumulated a lot of regret. I really made the post out of desperation because I have this stuff going round in my head all day and there is not really anyone who understands. Only other underage rentboys and I don't know how to find one of those! (and trying to do so would land me on a register).

Your right that it haunts me. I get flashbacks of the blood after the first time. But somehow I got into it and spent the next 10 years actively seeking out painful sex. I don't really understand that. The thought of being caused pain during sex still causes me to become aroused. I allways felt dirty and disgusting about myself and that did not help me to accept being gay, because I thought I was dirty and disgusting and that all gays were dirty and disgusting. So I could not manage to maintain a relationship. Never had a long term partner.

I do know the alcahol worsens the depressive part of my bipolar, but it also dampens the manic part and I get terrified of becoming too manic. I don't take the pills, they are horrific. You are no better than a rotting vegetable when you are on those.

I know what I need to do, I need to stop drinking, start going to the gym again, get back to my university course and start going back into the world (I barely leave my flat these days). But I just cant seem to do any of it. Every day I drink I think to myself 'this is the last day' then when I do it again I think 'I'll just do it this one more time, just to say goodbye to it'. But I can't seem to get out of that pattern.

I think people don't understand what it is like to feel so worthless that you hardly care about yourself or what happens to you. I am well aware of what I should do to change my life for the better, but I don't care about myself and no one else does. So it's like whats the point? Something might make me feel better but I don't care about me so why bother?

Just wanted to acknowledge I read this. Will respond later.
 
Sci-Fi said:
DVEUS said:
i've read everything here and my gut says this is a troll...and before YOU jump on my back...i have an opinion just as everyone has...real life abuse is NOT written as an unknown as a rule...so, therefore i dub this a troll...if not?..i do apologize..just my 2 cents...

A troll? Maybe you didn't notice that the OP has been here since 2008 and has over 400 posts.

i did notice scifi...and as i stated it was my opinion as which i am allowed correct?...i also stated that if i am incorrect that i do apologize...as a person who was abused in more ways than one as a child it's rarely put 'out there' for the world to see in an open forum...next time i will keep my opinions to myself...i apologize to the op and mods...
 
I'm so sorry you went through all that. I hope you find the tools you need to learn how to deal with it so it doesn't bother you as much.

DVEUS said:
it's rarely put 'out there' for the world to see in an open forum...

Actually, I know a number of people that have done just that. They aren't comfortable talking about it with people they know, so they turn to the internet and talk about it through anonymity, because they feel safer that way.
Most people don't talk about it at all, so I applaud the OP for having the courage to discuss it and, in turn, try to move on from it.
 
DVEUS said:
i did notice scifi...and as i stated it was my opinion as which i am allowed correct?...i also stated that if i am incorrect that i do apologize...as a person who was abused in more ways than one as a child it's rarely put 'out there' for the world to see in an open forum...next time i will keep my opinions to myself...i apologize to the op and mods...

Yes, you're allowed to say things and have opinions but I take issue with them when I think they have the potential to hurt others. Being overly critical of a person is one thing, potentially damaging their trust and ability to heal from childhood abuse is another.

Also, you know, just because you're a survivor yourself doesn't mean your words can't hurt other survivors. Women constantly are sexist towards other women, they don't get an excuse in my book either.

That being said, I want to recognize that you are willing to apologize if you were wrong about cumulus being a troll. That shows some goodwill on your part.
 
SophiaGrace said:
DVEUS said:
i did notice scifi...and as i stated it was my opinion as which i am allowed correct?...i also stated that if i am incorrect that i do apologize...as a person who was abused in more ways than one as a child it's rarely put 'out there' for the world to see in an open forum...next time i will keep my opinions to myself...i apologize to the op and mods...

Yes, you're allowed to say things and have opinions but I take issue with them when I think they have the potential to hurt others. Being overly critical of a person is one thing, potentially damaging their trust and ability to heal from childhood abuse is another.

Also, you know, just because you're a survivor yourself doesn't mean your words can't hurt other survivors. Women constantly are sexist towards other women, they don't get an excuse in my book either.

That being said, I want to recognize that you are willing to apologize if you were wrong about cumulus being a troll. That shows some goodwill on your part.

thank you SG.........................
 
DVEUS said:
Sci-Fi said:
DVEUS said:
i've read everything here and my gut says this is a troll...and before YOU jump on my back...i have an opinion just as everyone has...real life abuse is NOT written as an unknown as a rule...so, therefore i dub this a troll...if not?..i do apologize..just my 2 cents...

A troll? Maybe you didn't notice that the OP has been here since 2008 and has over 400 posts.

i did notice scifi...and as i stated it was my opinion as which i am allowed correct?...i also stated that if i am incorrect that i do apologize...as a person who was abused in more ways than one as a child it's rarely put 'out there' for the world to see in an open forum...next time i will keep my opinions to myself...i apologize to the op and mods...

Christ has it been since 2008? F****** hell. That's a hell of a long time to be on your own.

As to why I put it 'out there' - mostly because I have no one, literally not a human soul to talk to. But also I am still confused about how I got into that situation. I was a fairly decent schoolkid, I like science and maths and wanted to be a GP. I have no answers as to why such a thing should happen. On the one hand it was clearly 'corruption of a minor' and sexual exploitation, but I kept going back. Which made me realise how crappy my home life was too.

It really desturbs me, I have partial records of events that remind me of this stuff (Some school stuff, Social services records, mental health records). And how I got put on the path to ruin was so stupid it does my head in. I started to bunk off (wag) school a couple of days, then there was a news story of these truent officers or something who would get wayward youths (like the child catcher or something I thought), so I went and hid out in a public toilet for a while. I happened across a world no 13 yr old is ready for. Also at some point it became my fault, but at what point? What was my fault and what was not?

It never stopped ruining every aspect of my life but I did not put the pieces together until now. My social services records (as recorded by others) from around this time contain the origins of depression, self loathing, low self esteem, binge drinking, abnormal behavoiur and becoming withdrawn and lonely. Like the unit circle, centers on the origin.

Now I have to unpick all this mess to try to get some purchase on the few remaining decades I have.


SophiaGrace said:
DVEUS said:
i did notice scifi...and as i stated it was my opinion as which i am allowed correct?...i also stated that if i am incorrect that i do apologize...as a person who was abused in more ways than one as a child it's rarely put 'out there' for the world to see in an open forum...next time i will keep my opinions to myself...i apologize to the op and mods...

Yes, you're allowed to say things and have opinions but I take issue with them when I think they have the potential to hurt others. Being overly critical of a person is one thing, potentially damaging their trust and ability to heal from childhood abuse is another.

Also, you know, just because you're a survivor yourself doesn't mean your words can't hurt other survivors. Women constantly are sexist towards other women, they don't get an excuse in my book either.

That being said, I want to recognize that you are willing to apologize if you were wrong about cumulus being a troll. That shows some goodwill on your part.

if poster is a survivor it might be helpfull for them to engage with the decussion and share thoughts? Explore experiances?

Don't like that word survivor. You survive a plane crash, you don't survive buggery???


TheRealCallie said:
I'm so sorry you went through all that. I hope you find the tools you need to learn how to deal with it so it doesn't bother you as much.

DVEUS said:
it's rarely put 'out there' for the world to see in an open forum...

Actually, I know a number of people that have done just that. They aren't comfortable talking about it with people they know, so they turn to the internet and talk about it through anonymity, because they feel safer that way.
Most people don't talk about it at all, so I applaud the OP for having the courage to discuss it and, in turn, try to move on from it.

I tried to talk to my sister about it. She got angry and has cut me off. She doesnt want to admit how crappy our home life was. Not one of us came out of our family life undamaged. we are all messed up. It's just i had this on top of that. Then all this mental illness and that.
 
I don't actually think any of it was your fault. You were too young to make decisions. You got into a frightening world with which you could not cope and could not leave. Don't blame yourself for anything. You were the victim. But you don't have to go on being a victim now.
 
Aswel I am moved to write a book on the subject called "The homophobic Queer". Because I think every aspect of my 'self' and personality was assaulted. The Sexual vicimisation was not the only thing that led me to where I am now, which is a sad pathetic mentally ill alcaholic agrophobic unemployable unlovable loner.

Comes down to 3 things: Homophobia - (which I internalized) which stopped me from being able to express any aspect of my devloping personality; Hypermaculine culture - which made disclosure impossible and made me hate myself; Lack of information - no information on gay issues or gay sex, or healthy sex, or child abuse or anything like that.

I belive these things made me venerable to sexual exploitation and severely damaged/warped my personality.


Ioann said:
I don't actually think any of it was your fault. You were too young to make decisions. You got into a frightening world with which you could not cope and could not leave. Don't blame yourself for anything. You were the victim. But you don't have to go on being a victim now.

The thing is I was not the only one, there were other schoolboys, sometimes younger than me, and other underage rentboys. Just seems to be how it was back then. The laws and attitude of the time, if I or any of the others were caught we would be charged with lewed conduct or something or had I been caught negotiating money I would have also been done for soliciting.

So the attitude of the day would have been that I was just a dirty little *******. The attitude today is that I was sexually exploited. Very hard to get your head around. Like it wasent child abuse then but it is now?????
 
It was always child abuse. Just as rape has always been rape and slavery has always been slavery.

Human kind has a funny way of taking a while to realize "Oh, maybe i'm violating a human right and shouldn't do this to other human beings. That whole burning people at the stake thing was kinda wrong, and enslaving those native americans..."
 
SophiaGrace said:
It was always child abuse. Just as rape has always been rape and slavery has always been slavery.

Human kind has a funny way of taking a while to realize "Oh, maybe i'm violating a human right and shouldn't do this to other human beings. That whole burning people at the stake thing was kinda wrong, and enslaving those native americans..."

This is where I get really confused. What happened when I was 14 - the first time with anal sex really can't be described as anything other than a voilent rape. But I did not know that at the time. I thought that was how gay sex should be. I then spent many years seeking out painful and dangerous sex. I have a book which says something on it:

The Connection Between Arousal and Childhood Abuse

"It may seem impossible that sexual or physical abuse could be part of a persons arousal template, but it can and does happen. If as a child, for example, you felt both fear and pleasure during an act of sexual abuse, often you will have similar feelings as an adult - to the point of actually putting yourself in an abusive situation. In a sense, trauma becomes connected, even fused, to the arousal template. If you were abused as a child, then trauma, though painful, can become comforting too. Repeating the familliar trauma , you experiance a complex biological reaction that includes a neurochemical component that is biologically the sam as when you were a child."

So a painful rape mapped itself onto my arousal template and I was compelled to repeat the experience? It does my head in.

I was raped so I like being raped????? WOT!
 
cumulus.james said:
So a painful rape mapped itself onto my arousal template and I was compelled to repeat the experience? It does my head in.

I was raped so I like being raped????? WOT!

This sounds similar to people in abusive families choosing people who have a violent streak in them because violence feels "normal" to them.

I was with a woman once who was abused as a child. (Sexually, physically, and emotionally.) She had been in abusive relationships before she found me... Mister Nice Guy. I was not abusive, nor did I yell at her or threaten her or belittle her in any way. I treated her with respect and dignity, but since I was not creating the chaotic environment that her brain thought was "normal," she left me to live a life of chaos. This was her default "normal."

It sounds like your default "normal" was established by that violent episode at age 14. After the rape, you associated the pleasure and the pain together as your new default "normal." You went out to seek what you thought were normal sexual situations when you had no idea there were gay couples who were never violent or abusive. (At least, not without "safe words" and "aftercare.")
 
Case said:
cumulus.james said:
So a painful rape mapped itself onto my arousal template and I was compelled to repeat the experience? It does my head in.

I was raped so I like being raped????? WOT!

This sounds similar to people in abusive families choosing people who have a violent streak in them because violence feels "normal" to them.

I was with a woman once who was abused as a child. (Sexually, physically, and emotionally.) She had been in abusive relationships before she found me... Mister Nice Guy. I was not abusive, nor did I yell at her or threaten her or belittle her in any way. I treated her with respect and dignity, but since I was not creating the chaotic environment that her brain thought was "normal," she left me to live a life of chaos. This was her default "normal."

It sounds like your default "normal" was established by that violent episode at age 14. After the rape, you associated the pleasure and the pain together as your new default "normal." You went out to seek what you thought were normal sexual situations when you had no idea there were gay couples who were never violent or abusive. (At least, not without "safe words" and "aftercare.")

Hi thanks for the reply.

Obvoiusly I knew what had gone on in my childhood. But never understood and did that thing of trying to put it out of my mind.

Thing is. I was 14, in my school uniform, and he was 38 and he raped me. And I had no one to talk to and no information and rape of men or child abuse of men was never heard of. So I thought it was just how gay sex was. It got normalized when I made this penpal, we were both 16 and both had similar things. We discussed how it made your stomach ache, and all the blood and the pain. Thats normal gay sex isn't it?

sorry to be gross

Like, I went to pull my trousers up and I felt moist/damp. I went to wipe and it was all blood and semen. I was shaking (I had been shaking throughout, you can't know how painfull it felt), then I had an urge to pass wind, and all this horrible mixture of semen and blood. Like an afterbirth or something.

Gives me nightmares.

Can't get it out my head. No amount of alcahol helps now. I feel driven to finding a drugs dealer. I know if I go down that road I am never coming back.

I mean I've got no one to understand. Or care. I was 14. I cried myself to sleep. Just no one to talk to. Alone. And it stayed that way. And it was so bad, my home and social life that the problem became the solution. And i was in obscure parts of london in the early hours finding men to do painful sex to me. Until I was 24. Now I am so alone and that sort of sex is not even an option. I fantasize about being raped because if I was raped I would feel wanted, indeed loved.

I am never going to have a friend or a partner, and my chances of employment are almost non existant. So there is nothing left really. Pianful memories and no future.
 

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