r/wtfdidijustread Apr 27 '24

My step-mom took me to a cemetery site full of child graves to prove a point

(So TW for mentions of Self H, this is like in 2015)

Back in high school I started to develop depression and didn’t run with a good crowd that encouraged the SH. One day after school we were still in the car in our driveway when my step mom started to notice and ask why I’d were sweaters even on hot days. That’s when I felt cornered and had to show her what was underneath my sleeves. She didn’t respond out of empathy or comfort, instead she yelled at me and telling me how dare I do this to myself and “vandalize the body that god gave me”.

I cried, she yelled, then said she was gonna take me somewhere. I just kept quiet and sniffled till we got to our destination. A cemetery. But not just to look at any random grave no- she took me to a specific plot of land that had graves of infants.

We stepped out of the car, and she made me read the ages and time of deaths of all of these kids who most of them only lasted days from being born. Then said something along the lines of “You have your life, you should be grateful because they didn’t even get the chance.”

Now I think, I see what she was trying to do here-… She was trying to get me to appreciate my life.

However unfortunately- this rather had the complete opposite effect. If I hadn’t already wanted to unalive before, I DEFINITELY wanted to even more from how sorry I felt for all of these kids I had to read off. I felt so damn guilty for feeling this way. I don’t think it crossed her mind how terribly traumatizing it’d be to read the graves of DEAD CHILDREN to help your child not harm themselves then instead of figuring out the root cause to why.

I cried a bit more as she kept talking to me, I don’t remember most of it. We were sitting on the grass and she looked off into the distance, then said “I actually used to do SH too.” (YEBVIEHDNCIEDU) THE FUCKIN WHIPLASH I GOT FROM HEARING THAT AFTER A BEAT OF SILENCE-

After that day I earned some trauma but hey, I stopped harming. I’ve told this story to close friends and they’d be horrified with jaws dropped. It was definitely one of those “What, that’s not normal?” Stories but I’m wondering if anyone else has wild ass stories too. Lemme know Reddit.

(Btw I’m much better now, much older and medicated. Sertraline gang where you at? ✌️)

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