I do a lot of therapy groups, and one thing I have to state sometimes to people is that I was orphaned with living parents. I wasn’t raised by my biological parents, and turned 18 as a ward of the state. I have not met many people with this set of circumstances, so I want to ask if anyone here is comfortable sharing?
There are obvious negatives, I was homeless a number of times from 18-24 years of age. Stuggled a lot financially and finding my footing in life. I also have shit self esteem. Now in my late 30s, I never realized how much it effected me to not have an adult care about me as a child, well into adulthood and I still struggle. Also, holidays were rough until a few years ago.
The positives are I don’t have to deal with ass hole parents, dramas and such, and I don’t ever have to worry about their end of life care. I also learned what not to do when I became a parent myself, and have dedicated my life to ending generational trauma.
I love the happy ending. I hadn’t planned to have kids, but when I had my son it certainly grounded me in a way that having a child didn’t ground my own parents. I felt such urgency to make a good family/life for him.
I moved a lot too, which made it really hard to make and keep friends. I’ve never had a “group” for long growing up. Switching schools/homes/gaurdians so often really makes life hard.
It’s tough as a young person who doesn’t trust any adults, to get support from said adults. Im really glad to hear things turned out okay in the end for you!