growing up as a neurodivergent child in strict and traditional (asian) conservative household not only traumatised me so badly (as well as early exposure to porn as a child below the age of 8) that i have c-ptsd to this day and lingering remnants of a personality disorder and clinical depression, but i hate that the idea that to 'love' somebody you must 'abuse' them in the same breath. i don't think things are ever so black and white. perhaps people simply do not know better and do the best with what they have.
my family are haunted by a war that they cannot psychologically or physiologically exit out of. i don't fault them for that. i don't even partially blame them for not acknowledging my neurodivergence. that doesn't mean i am not angry. that doesn't mean they are blameless.
i am not sure how to help my family in a way that matters. i like to think that we are all in a single boat, destined to cross oceans until we reach some semblance of land. we are all lost. and i have found myself, while my family are still looking for someone that doesn't exist anymore. i cannot fault them for that.
i just hope the future holds better, more tangible things for me. by my own happiness and livelihood will i finally allow my roots to settle. i am not entirely my family. my family are not entirely me. i am, somehow, okay with that.