this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
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[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 31 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I was kidnapped (by a parent) as a kid.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh wow, I just told a story above about my friend who was kidnapped by his dad.

https://lemmy.world/comment/14534609

Also I know you're not him for anyone who asks. He's not on Lemmy even though I keep telling him he'll like it. He won't get off Reddit. Drives me nuts.

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's wild!

My story isn't that crazy. I feel weird/kind of guilty talking about like sometimes, because I know how much worse situations like that are for most people who have been through it. But you can't help the shit that fucked you up in childhood. Lol

Does your buddy still have contact with his dad?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Not as far as I know. But your story is important too!

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Story? Don't feel pressured if you don't want to but since you brought it up I'm guessing you're OK with talking about it

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 17 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I was 7, my dad woke me up at like 10 pm, told me to come with to the neighbors across the street. I'm gonna stay the night with my friend. Get there, we hang for like 2 hours, it's after midnight and he tells me we're leaving.

"You said we were staying the night"

"it's after midnight, we did stay the night"

My dad is a big fan of technically true statemelies like that.

He put us on a bus, and took us from Chesapeake, Virginia to Columbia, South Carolina, where we're originally from. We were there for about 2 months. I was with family, and cared for, and not abused or anything. But it was still scary. I knew my phone number, but it was the late 90s, and you didn't need to know the area code to call local, so I didn't know it. My dad had instructed everyone not to tell me. I couldn't talk to my mom or brother, and that scared me really badly. While I was there, my mom and brother both had a really terrible flu, no money (and by no money I mean none. They delivered papers for income, and my dad did tree work when he felt like it.). They couldn't afford the gas to come get me, even after my cousin helped me figure out the area code to call them.

From my point of the view at the time, it was framed as like, a trip home to see Grandma, but being away from my mom and brother, and not being allowed to speak to them, was really scary. Not to mention frustrating. I knew I was being lied to, and having things kept from me, and I didn't appreciate it. I started having panic attacks at night when it came to go to sleep, and they lasted until my late 20s. Like, almost every night. I had to learn breathing exercises and shit to deal with them in my teens. It's wild the shit that can be traumatic. I was safe. I was with my father, and my grandma (although, she was whole other piece of work), and I got to hang out with my older cousin who was good to me, even though her sister was a complete bitch. But it seriously damaged for a long time. I still have unresolved issues about it, and pretty severe separation anxiety and shit. I'm like a shelter dog sometimes. Lmao When the panic attacks started my aunt told me it was because I ate chocolate, and no one would believe me that it wasn't just, like, heartburn or something. They were real, and I didn't learn what they were until I was like 16, because panic attacks aren't, like, typical presentation. They're weird. Everything feels the wrong size. Like my hands feel tiny, or my teeth feel enormous. The bed feels like it's the size of an ocean, or the phone I'm using to distract myself feels like a matchbook in my hands. Just a whole bunch of shit. I guess I never really got past it.

But my mom got us a hamster when I got back, so that was cool. They found it in the driveway, and we named him Clyde. Later a neighbor rehomed theirs with us, and we renamed her Bonnie.

... Then Bonnie chewed through her enclosure and Bonnie ate Clyde, so altogether pretty shitty. Lmao

[–] brachypelmasmithi@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Everything feels the wrong size. Like my hands feel tiny, or my teeth feel enormous. The bed feels like it's the size of an ocean, or the phone I'm using to distract myself feels like a matchbook in my hands

Sounds a lot like the Alice in Wonderland syndrome.

I used to have it when I was little, and my symptoms were very similar to yours, but mine kind of went away on their own. When I close my eyes and focus, though, I can still make myself feel like the dark side of my eyelids is getting impossibly far away from me, which is very weird.

Do you still get these symptoms?

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not as bad as I used to, but yeah, if I let myself think at night then I get it really badly. I have to put on sleep meditation videos on YouTube, and I got a Bluetooth sleep mask. If I try to sleep without some kind of distraction it's pretty bad. Same for driving. Gotta have music or an audiobook or something or I end up having the pull the car over. Constant stimulus, basically.

No shrink has mentioned Alice in wonderland syndrome, I will look that up! I can also do the eyelid thing, but I don't because it triggers panic attacks

[–] brachypelmasmithi@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, it used to trigger panic attacks in me too. That's fascinating!

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I didn't know anyone else had that same experience, to be honest. Ive told shrinks and they all just say unusual presentation for anxiety/panic attacks

[–] brachypelmasmithi@lemm.ee 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

It honestly makes me wonder why my symptoms went away, but yours persist...

I've talked to a few people (like 3 or 4 i think) with the syndrome in the past, and it behaved differently for each person I spoke to, whether it's the symptoms, the cause, or, as in our case, whether it goes away or not.

It's a pretty unresearched syndrome, though the Wikipedia page for it has way more info than when I last checked.

EDIT: Another thing I'm curious about is that the symptoms also stopped causing panic attacks for me. I haven't had the eyelid thing for a while, since it's way easier for me to do that when I'm extremely tired, but the last time that happened I didn't get an attack at all. If anything, I tried to actually focus on what I was perceiving, I tried to make something out. Again, very weird how it develops differently for every person.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

The friend I was telling you about in another comment had to sleep with a blue light on for years because if he didn't, he knew (even though he realized it was totally irrational) that he would be abducted by aliens. And I guarantee you that was from the trauma of being kidnapped.

Kids are just so easy to fuck up even when you're actually doing everything the right way.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I'm not surprised it traumatized you, even if you didn't know the whole situation. Suddenly separating a 7 year old from their mom and brother for 2 months without explanation sounds exactly like the shit that would give long term issues

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That sounds like a very strange experience. Thanks for sharing

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 day ago

No worries, thanks for letting me vent. Free therapy lol