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Guru Father

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sartor

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My parents divorced when I was in high school, and my dad left and started over as a professional astrologer. Ten years later and he's become a new age "not-a-guru" with a large following. He is very charismatic and he helps a lot of people.

That's what most people see.

He treated mom like shit which led to the divorce. Verbal abuse, never physical, thank God. I was an only child and I hid in my room.

But you can't hide from an astrologer, who is like God the Father. He knew my chart. When I was born he said my horoscope was one of a serial killer. I got word of that when I was young and impressionable. Until recently he would compare me to Bobby Fisher, the chess maniac who wanted to psychologically destroy his opponent.

Fortunately I took up music instead of killing. I'm a pacifist, admittedly with anger issues! If you hear this kind of crap for long enough you start to believe it. I lost all my self esteem (bullying and social ostracism didn't help) and began to feel like an evil person. I felt guilty for being alive, and often wished to disintegrate.

Nothing I did was good enough for him. I'm pursuing a career in classical music, which takes an incredible amount of perseverence. He didn't come to my concerts.

The last straw was when i came out to him about my gender identity, told him how I felt in the middle and might be trans. For two years bring up the subject was met with dismissal and interrogation. "There's nothing feminine about you. That's not what I asked you. That's not what I asked you. I asked you one simple question..." After the divorce he took in a fatherless boy whom he could take to ball games.

He would tell me it was impossible for him to hurt me and that I made it up and hurt myself. He said I had no idea how much I hurt him. I know exactly how much. I offered to go to therapy with him to work on our communication, and he shot me down. He had to be in control and he had to be right. He went so far as to call a therapist I was about to see and tell him I was too mentally ill to get treatment. He had to be in control of my spiritual development. I was a Bobby Fisher abuser and he was an emissary of the Holy Spirit.

He admitted he almost "kidnapped" me to get me away from my mother.

I cut him out. I am full of guilt and rage.
 
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Your dad sounds like a nutter. I'm so sorry you went through all this. I know what you mean when you say if you hear it enough you start to believe it. One of my parents called me stupid and an idiot all the time (I later realised that was projection and that's how they saw themselves) I believed it I didn't do great in school and I thought I was a total idiot. Now I know I'm no genius but I'm not stupid. I still catch myself my inner dialogue saying I'm stupid.

I think you're best shot of your toxic father he had his chance to be a parent and he f*cked it. Good on you for standing up for yourself.

What's your mum like? Is there support for you with her? Wow classical music that's amazing you must have real drive and commitment. What do you play may I ask?
 
I'm sorry you went through something similar. I don't have any advice. I hope you've recovered your confidence.

Mom's a musician and my best friend. But we're codependent and she's deeply depressed too.

And i abused her to get my way. I'm afraid of taking control of my life so i take advantage of her willingness to do it.

I tried that with dad too and he didn't let it happen.

It kills me that i've acted like an abuser to both of my parents. And the madder i get at dad the more i fulfill his prophecy that i'm a dangerous person.

I play lute, a gentle instrument. In many ways i am a gentle person, in many ways i am not.
 
How do you mean you abused your mother to get your way? No judgment here I just wanted clarity.

You know the old saying bullied become bully's. I think if you went treated properly by your father (someone who is supposed to protect you and teach you how to treat others) then how are you supposed to learn how to behave.

Although now you know. So now you have the responsibility to change how you treat people.

And as for recovering my confidence it's a daily battle some days are better than others. It takes a lot of self care and you need to take care of yourself and challenge unhelpful thoughts.

Everyday tell yourself you're a good person and you do good things give examples of the good things you do. You cared enough about a stranger to ask if I've recovered and to say sorry for what I've been through. (Although I just wanted to say hey I know how you feel, someone else has been through something similar)
That to me shows compassion and empathy something psychopaths don't feel and can't understand. You are a good person. You just have a bit of healing to do like all of us here.
 
Hi Sartor,
You are not evil.
Besides, what people consider 'evil' to abuse others with and what evil shows in are two different things. (In my book? Abuse is pretty evil.)

You're a charming & strong lady (if you are a lady! Insert label you identify with if any please), and there ain't a one thing evil bout you. What your prick father thought bout that isn't relevant. Nor that he thought it for a very long time. His madness is not yours.

Someone who can't acknowledge the basic human value & beauty of another ever in his life? He don't deserve consideration, or sympathy. There's nothing holy in what he does.

Stay strong. You did the right thing. Keep away from him, and people like him, & live as who you are & stay safe. It's enough.
 
Dad's of course not as awful as i've demonized him here. Those are the worst parts. He's a person of love, service, and devotion.

By abuse i meant flipping out and having bigger breakdowns than i needed to in order to get mom to do things for me. Spoiled.

Thank you all for listening. Mostly i need to vent right now. He's probably venting about me. Cookies.
 
I've been leaving this tab open on my phone as a reminder that I'm not crazy. It helps. Thank you all for...
Hey there -

I can relate so much to what you are going through -

My dad was not an astrologer or spiritual seeker but he seems a lot like your dad in other ways.

He had a lot of charm, charisma, intelligence and talent and a LOT of anger and fear and inability to like himself and he took it out on me and my mother - I too am an only child who went into theatre as a way of dealing with what happened to me growing up.

Ironically he had been in community theatre but had not one nice thing to say about my being in theatre unless of course I was introducing him to a famous person or getting him free tickets to see something he wanted to see.

And although my father was a rageaholic alcoholic and was the cause of my getting PTSD he was not always evil. There were many good things about him which is what made the situation more difficult because he was not always evil - just sometimes.

And I too used manipulated my mother to get what I needed - It takes a lot of courage to have admitted that - so thank you for saying that - it makes it easier for me to go back and look at what I did to cause harm to her.

I had to keep reminding myself of my positive qualities - keep reestablishing them within myself - keep remembering I don't want to be like him - I have so much good to give the world - and I will not let his inability to deal with the world beat me. I am going to overcome this and find my own path - I will keep working on improving my good qualities until I can get out of this situation.

Praying for you -

Laurie
 
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