Thank you. And to add insult to injury I work in public health and it was my coworkers who vaccinated me :)

The vaccine injury thing gets me. You know, I'm allergic to penicillin. I will go into anaphylactic shock and die if I have it. I also learned while in the hospital last month that after years of taking it, I am allergic to morphine, and it makes my arms and face swell up like a balloon. Does that make those bad…

There is no such thing as zero risk. I would rather risk the rare chance of a vaccine injury than the higher risk of contracting the actual disease. And I still say this AFTER getting Guillain Barré in October from my annual influenza vaccine!!! GBS was the most painful experience I have ever had and I still…

Tetanus DOES NOT GIVE A SHIT about your strong immune system. I'm pretty sure the last time I went in to get a cut treated they were brushing my arm with alcohol and pinching a vax site WHILE I was signing the freaking consent form. No time was wasted. That disease is not to be fucked with—dying from it is…

"who "meditated on it a lot" before deciding against vaccinating her son, Tobias."

the last therapist I went to started crying when I started sharing a story that I believed, on the scale of meh to the worst, was more towards meh.

I like your handle too!! Never heard Icicle live. I'd love to.

I've finally distanced myself from my narcissistic, alcoholic mother and I still feel guilty for it often. Growing up I thought it was my dad who was the bad one (and he was): alcoholic, wife beater, cheating, drug addicted piece of shit. When we finally got out of there I shortly realized my mother was batshit too.…

I know you're not kidding. I believe you.

Oh, I'm sure they believed her. She is very good at coming off as the victim or the good guy. People love her, but she doesn't have any real, close friends. Just acquaintances that she has charmed. She's not a bad person, per se. She just has a warped view of reality.

Yup. PTSD here, too, and it came as a huge surprise at the time. I still find myself telling what I think are normal childhood stories and only realize when my therapist/friends/husband/stranger on a plane are sitting there in open-mouthed horror just how fucked up it is.

I like how she managed to work in fat-shaming there in her list of ways her generation went wrong trying to be SO SO NICE OMG WE WERE JUST TRYING TO BE NICE.

Hugs right back to you, and thanks to all for the support. :) I was also diagnosed with PTSD when I finally got myself to therapy, and I was as shocked as you were. I felt the same way you did; I knew people who had suffered physical and sexual abuse, so compared to them, I felt bad for complaining at all. I don't…

*Ginormous virtual hugs*

My mother was never physically abusive. Verbally and emotionally abusive was her thing. There are so many stories I could tell, but the one that really sticks out (and showcases her ability to bamboozle outsiders into believing her to be a saint) is my go-to story:

Agree! My mom is definitely a "you and your sibling are my wooooorld!!!" type of parent and like to ask just how much we're going to take care of her in her old age. This is particularly stressful to me since my mother and I have very different personalities and while I love her, I cannot stand to be around her very…

Literally my whole life was feeling responsible for my parent's feelings. It's horrible and it's only in the past year that I've been able to actually disengage from it, but it's guilt like no other.

As the child of a narcissist (my father- thankfully my mother raised me) I can guarantee that grown children do not cut off ties with their parents because the parent did too good a job at building the child's self-esteem or because the parent won't support the view that the child has of themselves. Not talking to a…

I think sometimes abusive parents have a tendency to believe the lies they've told themselves about how wonderful their children's childhoods were. Particularly if their children turned out to be decent adults.