Religious and Coming Out

[AWriter]

I can identify with many of the posts I read here. I'm older now, but finally have decided to share my experiences with others in case it helps anyone. As a religious Catholic I struggled with coming out and was scared, depressed, and secretive about my feelings. Luckily, in a sense, things got so bad, I finally entered therapy. As someone once said, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life (so far), but also the best present I've ever given myself. I'm posting chapters of a book I'm writing for free on the website Wattpad. It's called SEARCHING FOR GOD AND MY GAY SELF IN THERAPY. If you do read it, I hope it helps. It took years, but it finally brought me to a place of peace, pride, and forgiveness. Good luck -- Andy V Roamer

[AWriter]

At some point when I was struggling with my feelings and coming out, I realized I was a people pleaser, someone who was so attuned to my parents needs as a child, I grew up more concerned with other people’s feelings than my own. My own feelings were always there but buried so deeply I sometimes didn’t even know what they were. I had become, in popular psychology terms, an adult child. THE DRAMA OF THE GIFTED CHILD is a short book (only about 150 pages), but it tackles the problem head on. The author, Alice Miller, describes her own and other people’s experiences and shows how this repression of feelings can result in depression, emptiness, grandiosity— or worse. The book helps readers start on the path to discovering their own true selves and begin living, maybe for the first time. It certainly helped me on the road to recovery. --Andy