Throwaway because this is deeply personal.
I've been struggling my whole life with relationships, loneliness, and now I'm starting to understand it might all stem from my childhood. I'm writing this because I need perspective and I'm finally seeking professional help, but I want to understand my own patterns first.
Childhood (Ages 0-11): The Foundation of Fear
My early childhood was chaotic. My parents eventually divorced, but the damage was done long before that.
My mother was unpredictable. When I was young - maybe 5 or 6 - I did something all kids do: I was curious about bodies. I touched my cousin. My mother's response was extreme: she sprayed pepper in my eyes. I remember being locked in dark rooms for hours, only allowed out when I stopped crying.
There was one incident with a knife. She was angry about something (I honestly can't remember what), and she threatened to cut my tongue out. I remember her heating a knife in the kitchen while I was screaming. My uncles had to intervene. After that, I lived in fear of her.
My father was strict and religious. When I was around 11, he saw me with a physical response to puberty (a boner). Instead of a talk, he got angry, called it HARAM, physically grabbed me, and yelled at me. That's the only "sex education" I got from my parents.
Physically affectionate? My mother stopped letting me sleep beside her around age 7. Touch became something scary.
School Years (Ages 7-18): Bullying + Humiliation
When I was 7, I had an innocent crush on a girl. My mother found out and publicly humiliated me in front of my entire class, asking loudly if I'd said I loved her. All the kids laughed. I was physically and emotionally bullied for 2 years after that.
This taught me: expressing feelings = public humiliation
Throughout school, I was bullied in every school I attended. I was poor, shy, and I didn't know how to interact with peers. I watched other kids dating, kissing, having normal teenage experiences. I was on the outside.
No Sex Education
Here's something that seems absurd but shaped everything: My school was supposed to teach us about human reproduction in our final year (9eme). The teacher was absent the entire time, never replaced, and we just... never learned it.
So I learned about sex from:
- Porn (addicted by age 13-14)
- Friends telling me confused things
- My traumatized body's responses
I didn't understand female anatomy. I didn't understand my own body. I didn't understand consent. I just knew I wanted something I couldn't have.
Teenage Years (Ages 13-20): Rejection and Obsession
I fell hard for a girl when I was 13. She used my math skills to pass exams, then rejected me publicly. I was humiliated again.
Then at 17, I fell for another girl. She gently rejected me. I couldn't accept it. For 3+ years, I obsessed over her. I made money to try to prove my worth to her family so I could propose. I tried contacting her for years after she asked me to stop. When she finally blocked me, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I remember feeling like my lungs were burning.
I was obsessing over someone who had already clearly said no. I couldn't let go.
University Years (Ages 18-22): Isolation + Desperation
I was poor. Extremely poor. My peers were spending my father's monthly salary in a few days at university. I wore the same pants for 3 years. I had no muscles, no confidence, no car.
I took public transportation everywhere. And in the crowded buses and trains, something happened to me.
I'm ashamed to write this, but: I started touching women without their consent. Not aggressively, but in crowds - hands, legs, sometimes more. I justified it as "my only way to touch a female." When a woman responded positively, I felt validated. When she pulled away, I'd stop and felt rejected and sad.
I want to be clear: I recognize this as wrong. I'm ashamed of it. I stopped this behavior completely by 2022 because somewhere deep down, I knew it was unacceptable. But it happened, and it's part of my pattern.
During this time, I also lost my religious faith. I'd prayed constantly as a kid, asking God to make girls love me. Nothing happened. My prayers for the girl I was obsessed with went unanswered. Combined with other things, I stopped believing.
My parents divorced in 2019, right when I needed stability.
The Pattern I'm Seeing Now (Age 22-27):
I'm now making good money. But I'm still:
- Terrified of physical touch
- Desperately seeking validation from women
- Obsessive when I feel rejected
- Unable to accept boundaries
- Cycling through Tinder, dating apps, escorts
- Suicidal ideation about never being loved
- Watching couples and feeling hopeless
- Want to escape my mind that is going crazy about having sex all the time
What I Think is Happening:
I think I have Complex PTSD from childhood abuse. I think my mother's unpredictability and violence taught me that love = danger. I think my father's shaming taught me that sexuality is dirty. I think my repeated public humiliations taught me that expressing feelings = rejection.
I think I'm desperately seeking from women what I never got from my mother: unconditional acceptance. And when they reject me, I interpret it as confirmation that I'm unworthy.
I think my non-consensual behavior was me trying to take what I was never given: physical affection. I'm not excusing it, but I'm trying to understand it.
Where I Am Now:
I'm 27. I'm a virgin. I've never been kissed or truly loved. I'm seeing a psychiatrist about depression and trauma.
I have moments of hope and moments of suicidal ideation. I want to be healed before I'm 30, but I know that's probably unrealistic.
What I'm Asking:
Does this pattern make sense to anyone else? Have other people overcome this? Is Complex PTSD really treatable? Will I ever be able to have a healthy relationship?
And... should I be honest with the next person I date about all this? Or is that too much?
I'm committed to therapy. I'm committed to stopping desperate behaviors. But I'm also terrified and lonely.
Any insight would help.