u/Nearby_Ad_51

I've been a pagan for a long time. I was brought up Catholic but walked away from that path because my family used religion to abuse me. Lately though I have had a pull over the last couple of years to learn more about Jesus and the Saints. I don't consider myself a Christian again by any means, but I can't help but feel a pull back but under my own terms. Not how my family treated me. What I have always loved about Paganism is that you can make it your own in certain ways. It feels conflicting though. I've heard of people practicing dual faiths before. How have you all proceeded with incorporating Christianity and paganism together?

While other people have fun Sunday plans with friends or family...it's just another day. Alone, with myself, taking care of a baby all day until my husband eventually wakes up from his third shift sleep schedule. I might go to the plant store...that's all I have is plants. I have no friends...I tried reaching out to the two people who claimed to be my best friends...but now it's just ignored texts or they just like what I send and no actual interactions. I hope I live long enough to see my daughter grow old because I feel like loneliness is going to kill me one day. It's rather hard to heal from so much trauma when you don't have very many safe or healthy relationships to help you heal.

I remember a few years ago Sarah would mention how she and Josh would give each other coffee enemas...at first I thought it was a joke but after thinking about it she mentioned it more than a joke would lean to and her tone was dead serious.

I may be going to a mental health support group on Thursday. I've been meaning to go for months but something kept coming up. If anyone else has gone to one how was your experience? Was it overwhelming? Was it healing? I might not say anything the first session to see if it's a place for me first.

If this isn't appropriate please let me know and I'll remove it. I'm just very sad today because my husband and I were discussing when we were going to have another child. Our daughter and first child just turned 10 months a few days ago... anyways my husband said we can't afford to have another child... between my daughter and myself when I was pregnant with her I was a high risk pregnancy and when she was born she was a NICU baby and since then she has had to have all these extra things and I've been having postpartum health issues which has costed us a lot...and I'm just incredibly sad I can't have one more child. I'm going to be 37 this year so I know having another child years from now will just be more difficult...I was really hoping we could plan for one more baby by the end of this year or next year but it's just never going to happen now.

I don't really have friends these days so I just needed to vent about this somehow.

After being diagnosed this year with PTSD and a few other mental health issues...no one is there. I keep reading about how having a support system can help with healing...but no is there. No one is ever there. Part of my issues is that I am always isolated...and no one wants to be my friend unless they can use me, manipulate me or get something out of me...I almost threw my pan of eggs on the floor because I got so sad and angry knowing that once again in my life...no one is ever there for me...no one sees me. I've been alone since I was a child...I have had to learn to not need anyone from a very young age...and it doesn't matter if I try something new to make friends it goes back to the same feeling of being too much and never enough...

My husband works a third shift schedule. He works all night and then sleeps in the day. He's the only source of socialization I get...my daughter is turning 10 months soon and the very few friends that I thought were my friends are nowhere to be found...i exhaust all options I have to make friends...but it is fruitless. Everyone always tells me how nice and lovely I am...but then they disappear. No one will ever understand how much what I went through took from me. Now at 36 I've just accepted I'll never have the community I dreamed of having even as a mother now...I try not to leave the TV on so much when she is awake...but it makes it seem like someone is there even if it's just background noise...

Hello, I am just looking for some support or guidance on how to get back to the Catholic faith. I'm a 36F. I was born and raised Catholic but I suffered a lot of religious abuse and trauma from my family growing up so I walked away from the Catholic faith. I want to say over the last couple of years I've been struggling with that pain but also wanting to ease my way in again. The Saints have been a comfort to me. Has anyone else gone through this experience? Please be kind...every time I bring up religious trauma people think I'm a monster...thank you in advance.

36F. It has been hitting me hard the last several weeks that I don't know how to always take care of myself or dress myself well. I've been going through a lot of my clothes and I just get so frustrated. I've been having flashbacks over how really neglected I was. My parents never taught me how to care for myself. I remember when I got my first period (I was ten and a half years old, a mere baby) and I vaguely remember my mom saying 'you're a woman now here is a pad.' I didn't know what all that meant. For so long I would either wear one pad for a week straight or two when I had my period growing up. I didn't know that what I was doing was wrong until a friend's mom told me how to take care of myself during that time. My siblings and I also used to share the same towels and toothbrushes. I can vividly remember the wore down toothbrushes all four of us shared. Who knows how long in between new toothbrushes we actually had. I now have periodontal disease from not knowing how often one should see a dentist. I remember working one job where a supervisor approached me because a customer made a complaint that I smelled bad...for context I worked at a pet store. Animals smell and I worked like a dog so I always was sweating buckets by the end of each shift but that really hit me hard. Now when I try to do my hair to look nice- I realized that I don't know what I'm doing. When I try to dress nice - I don't hit the mark well all the time. I also struggle with my weight I'm 280ish pounds and I just feel like a fat piece of shit. My extended family always placed my value on how I looked too throughout my whole life. By the end of highschool I was roughly 400 pounds. The lowest weight I have been is 170 and that was from a severe eating disorder. It's a never ending cycle of pain and realization that I was now set up to live this life well or feel like a normal person.