As Ive said in the past I grew up in a very religious family. We were Pentecostal, particularly Assemblies of God. It made for a very weird childhood.
Ive spoken about how the whole family was involved in one way or the other but I omitted a big detail as to my involvement. I was considered a prohpet in the making. Meaning I would, I suppose, often hear from God and where applicable I would relay that to the church as a whole or individuals. I would see what I believed were little angels and in general was "in tune" with the spititual realm.
Looking back not only was this mental, I should have been checked out psychologically, I can see how this has influnced my psychotic development. But at the time, I was "special" the "Hand of God" was on me. It wasnt just my Church that had these feelings but our parent Church and later a Church I joined where I grew into senior leadership.
At home I was incredibly scared of getting into trouble, Mum had a wild temper so I was pretty well behaved, out of fear not respect. I spent alot of time out of site, in my room with my gem collection, or reading the bible or studying. I, as said before, was a nerd. When I was young I was tested and found to be a few points shy of genius, I dont think that would apply now days.
In my late teens it was pretty much Dad still going to Church, I had plenty of reasons against Church, at the time not so much God as an entity but the man made BS of what Church had become. Anyhow, I did well in year 11 and was on track for what I wanted in year 12, or should I say what my Mum wanted for me. The stress of year 12 broke me and I finished year 12 well below what I needed for becoming a teacher (thankfully) but had passed.
By broke me I mean acting out, playing instead of studying, handing in poor work. I had 11 contact hours a week, most of which were phone based. I didnt get to do the subjects I wanted, some forced upon me by my Mum. Mum was very much English, math and music. I dropped music in year 12, I was not very good. I had to have a tutor for English and math was considered in the bag for me, but I had to do business math and I had no interest, added to which I was often correcting the teacher.
After school was several jobs, mainly manual labour. My last manual labour job is when I did my back in. I spent a lot of my day with 50Kg bags on either shoulder packing them up to 2 meters high. One day I picked up a 1.5kg bag and that was the end of that. I had 2 buldging discs and had compression fractures through pretty much all of my vertebra
Lots of treatment, lots of pain meds, no one could work out why I was in so much pain, then was basically told end of the line off you go.
Sorry got a bit off topic. I think what happened to me as a kid, the being called a prophet etc the pressure of that, trying to be this holy little kid that didnt miss behave in public or at home plays a huge role as to who I have become as a person but also mental health wise. Its not a common situation but if you have kids care for their mental health not just their their health and wellbeing
