Heya! This might be a little late, but just realised I never got round to introducing myself.
I kinda stumbled across SS over Christmas last year after failing to ctb, and finally ended up registering this month. If all goes to plan, I shall be catching the bus in the middle of February.
A major cause of my struggles in life come down to me as a person and, by extension, how others react to who I am. I live in a very christian family, everybody in the family apart from me is a member of a local church and, with the exception of my father, are very conservative. I came out to my parents as pansexual in 2017 and while my dad was accepting, my mother started treating me differently and we stopped spending as much time together. After my dad moved out to the Channel Islands last year, I've felt like I live in a house with strangers and have grown further apart from my brothers and mum. On top of this, I have suffered from bipolar disorder (Formerly known as 'manic depression') for as long as I can remember (I was diagnosed when I was 11). I never really had any friends, partly due to social anxiety but also trust issues that developed from my last relationship that lasted on-and-off for a year.
So far this website has been of great use to me in two major ways. Obviously, the first would be the access to resources and painless methods to ctb (including SN, the method I intend to use). But the second reason I love this website is because of something I've never really experienced, a sense of belonging. Everybody I've encountered has been kind, non-judgmental and polite. For the first time in my life, I feel like I've found somewhere I belong. While I can't put myself in everybody's shoes and experience people's circumstances and individual issues, I find comfort in the fact that there is very little, if any, judgement across this site. Everybody tries their best to be as helpful as possible.
So from the bottom of my heart, thank you
I hope I get the opportunity to chat with all you lovely people before I exit. :)
