Were you a "brat" as a child? (Catholics, pray, God)
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Aside from a very top temper (which I struggle even today to control), I was the perfect child and teenager. I never gave my parents any trouble whatsoever.
No, not a brat. But I did display problematic behaviors after the age of 13, due to undiagnosed mental illnesses.
Parents don't assume your children are just being difficult or wild in their behaviors. Make an effort to have them evaluated by a mental health professional before you brand them as uncontrollable and problematic.
I was the opposite of a brat. I followed the rules and was terrified of being punished BECAUSE it was drilled into my head that I was a sinner, that we were all born sinners and that hell awaited us unless we loved Jesus.
I didn't love Jesus. Jesus scared me because he was always watching and knew what I really thought, but I wouldn't admit that to anyone. Still, I knew that God knew, and so I was terrified all the time that God was going to punish me. It was a terrible way to have to live as a child
So, no, OP, I don't see that pattern. I think religious people who focus on how sinful we are never got the chance to break away from that sick way of thinking and don't understand how sick it really is.
No, not a brat. But I did display problematic behaviors after the age of 13, due to undiagnosed mental illnesses.
Parents don't assume your children are just being difficult or wild in their behaviors. Make an effort to have them evaluated by a mental health professional before you brand them as uncontrollable and problematic.
Sing it, greatblueheron. I actually developed mental illness--OCD to be precise--at the age of six directly BECAUSE of the religious teachings I was brought up with. I'm sure the seeds were there within my mind, but the focus on sin, death, and hell watered and fertilized it, and the circumstances of what happened to me at that age set its growth in motion. It would take me until my forties to understand what was wrong with me.
I've been getting the impression that the kind of people who think that they were born "sinful" might have been more like brats as children.
That belief may have come later. But more importantly is the belief that came first. That is the idea that because some children can be brats or bratty at times, it must mean that they are born with sin and/or evil. "Now off to religious school so that your bratty soul can be saved."
Sing it, greatblueheron. I actually developed mental illness--OCD to be precise--at the age of six directly BECAUSE of the religious teachings I was brought up with. I'm sure the seeds were there within my mind, but the focus on sin, death, and hell watered and fertilized it, and the circumstances of what happened to me at that age set its growth in motion. It would take me until my forties to understand what was wrong with me.
Luckily, people with OCD are freaks in their studies at least, I mean at least we are able to figure out what is wrong with ourselves.
Luckily, people with OCD are freaks in their studies at least, I mean at least we are able to figure out what is wrong with ourselves.
Yes, once I knew what it was, I realized it was a creative way to deal with anxiety and anger and depression.
Most of the time I catch myself when I am obsessing or doing the counting or word rituals I have to do to prevent IT from happening, whatever IT may be at the moment.
Most of the time. Sometimes people close to me have to point it out.
I also recognize the intrusive thoughts for what they are and even look at them and try to analyze them. It's like having a horror movie running in the background of your mind. But it was definitely fed by religiosity in childhood, and I will never be able to completely get rid of it, and I don't think I want to at this point. It is part of who I am.
I was the opposite of a brat. I followed the rules and was terrified of being punished BECAUSE it was drilled into my head that I was a sinner, that we were all born sinners and that hell awaited us unless we loved Jesus.
I didn't love Jesus. Jesus scared me because he was always watching and knew what I really thought, but I wouldn't admit that to anyone. Still, I knew that God knew, and so I was terrified all the time that God was going to punish me. It was a terrible way to have to live as a child
So, no, OP, I don't see that pattern. I think religious people who focus on how sinful we are never got the chance to break away from that sick way of thinking and don't understand how sick it really is.
We have so much in common, I was always terrified and it consummed my days, the torment that was waiting for me. I figured if I killed myself, maybe then God would forgive me.
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