RAEL’S COMMENT: Whatever happened to you in the past is not you now. You are, only if you are in the now. Not in the future, not in the past: just now. Trauma from past events are just self-maintained illusions and good excuses to avoid dealing with the only thing that matters: now. Happy new you!
Victim culture is pervasive. From gaming to politics, an endless cycle of hurt feelings has tainted all it touches. But in a society where depression is skyrocketing, it’s time to call out a mindset that is ruining people’s lives.
My childhood, teens, and much of my 20s were not good to me. Having grown up in an abusive home where I experienced sexual, mental, and physical abuse, only to go to school where I was relentlessly bullied, I often found myself in a dark space. Throw in a violent rape around my 20th year of existence, and needless to say I was not a happy individual.
Through the eyes of my younger self, all I knew was victimhood. A sentiment backed by my experience with so many different forms of abuse. It was through that lens which I saw the world. I defined myself by my victim status, and I wanted to be treated as such.
By the time I was 25, I wasn’t living a good life. Suicide attempts were the norm, and I desperately sought out people who would coddle me. My coping mechanisms were poor, and I continually regressed into a weaker headspace, coaxed on by the people I filled my life with who treated me as a baby. Nowhere was I pushed to get stronger and I hit a phase where I was only ever upset.
I expand upon my history as such, because through all the coddling, babying, and safespacing I surrounded myself with, my anger, depression, and suicidal tendencies didn’t improve. I remained perpetually miserable. Never finding a leg to stand on because I didn’t have the strength to do so. I was stuck in a pit of despair because I refused to teach myself how to climb. These are the trappings of victim culture.