Radhika

34 | Married | Scientist

Growing up as the elder daughter of the family, I saw my parents wanting to get divorced but staying together due to societal pressure. We became good at acting happy and kept our broken family secret from even close friends/ extended family.

My parents’ unhappy marriage and toxic fights made my childhood traumatic, and little did I know how much it had impacted my thoughts and feelings. Even as a child, I felt responsible for everyone. It was a high-stress environment all the time but I naively believed I could fix everything. I developed anxiety trying to keep everyone happy, often resorting to people-pleasing and having no/limited boundaries.

Time passed, and I moved abroad and got married. It was when the pandemic hit that things changed. My unresolved trauma led to chronic health issues, and my own marriage was impacted. My anxiety was hard to manage and I sought help from therapy, learning healthy coping mechanisms.

My parents finally got divorced recently, both around 60+ years old and today, I’m a child of divorce, learning to slowly heal. Many people are shocks to learn about their divorce but to me it is a happy change.

Here to support you in case you’ve also had a difficult childhood impacting your adult life today.

 Have taken therapy.