I was emotionally and physically neglected. Left in a room most days. No one talked to me, didn't have friends at school. Kids didn't like me. Didn't have the same interests or concerns. My parents worked a lot. Exhausted when they came home. They spent time in separate rooms, all of us in separate rooms. If my dad wasn't yelling at me about something minuscule, like his TV not working (as if I had done something — I never touched his TV), or ignoring me, he was laughing with me about something on TV, telling me hello in a sing song voice. Then the next day he'd yell at me for opening the door to slow with the key, for forgetting to put his clothes in the dryer. And my mom just didn't know what to do, was too tired anyway. Just prayed and read and slept. I'd watch TV in my room, go online and look at forums. I'd watch MTV. Read books. Sleep. Oversleep. Not be able to sleep.
I managed to get out. So very well, be very successful. But all the stress and confused and lack of discipline caught up. Looking for love and stability and security in the wrong places, wrong faces.
I had a nervous breakdown, developed a neurological condition, had to come back home, went practically catatonic for 2 years, looked at the wall in a dark room, paced up and down. Only left my room to eat or go online walks my dad made me go on for "exercise." I had to move back in with my abuser. The guy who sent me into the arms of men who used and abused me. Then I moved out, now I'm with my mom. I'm in terrible pain. I don't leave the house. Can't go anywhere anyway. Nothing around here, no transport, plus I can barely stand up straight. I neglected myself out of depression and self loathing and developed more nerve issues, nerve pain. I can barely sleep, barely eat.
All I can do is write sometimes. I was an academic and a journalist. I went to grad school. Best school in the US. Full rides, fellowships. Got a good job, lived comfortably for a single person in a wonderful city.
I wasn't gonna make it. But I didn't know it was gonna be this bad, worse than I started.