Death and Other Distractions: Bad Touch

Musings on suicidal depression and stumbling toward mental health

The stories in this series contain a lot of frank discussion of fucked-up things, and so have the following blanket content warnings:

• Child abuse
• Self-harm and suicide
• Violence
• Drug abuse
• Mental illness
• Sexual assault and rape
• A shit-ton of swears

Let me know if this is a generational thing for other kids from the early to mid 80s, that Elder Millennial sub-generation that had Ataris but not cell phones as a kid — were you also required to be emotionally self-sufficient from birth? It was very important that I not burden my elders with my issues, it seemed. They were busy, and as long as my physical needs were provided for, (“Be glad we don’t make you pay rent”, “We fed and bathed you every day of your life!”) that about covered their responsibilities.

All kids have a slight “us-vs-them” mentality about grown-ups, fair enough, but the kids I knew in the early 90s lived in constant fear that their parents would overhear an unfeigned laugh or unrehearsed comment. It was not safe for a kid to be a person around adults, all adults, everywhere…