I think I resonate with Lemonhope and appreciated the episode because to me it’s very relatable with how I responded to my own trauma.

My father was an abusive prick and instead of cowering at the face of adversity, I essentially ran away.

I moved out for a year at one point, and when I was forced to move back home, I kept my distance as much as I possibly could.

I focused on my self. My desires, my needs. I built myself a career, put myself through college.

Even today I’ve gone no contact, and try not to think too much about that part of my life. Only the here-and-now and immediate future.

Many complain that Lemonhope abandoned his peers, something people who don’t know me or anything about narcissistic parents and abuse, acuse me of. “you abandoned your siblings!”

Nonetheless I think it was self preservation at that point. My siblings and I struggle sometimes with the guilt of feeling like we never did enough to help or defend one another. But we’ve made amends to the fact we weren’t truly able to and just trying to focus on making it through from one day to the next. What we WERE able to do, was make ourselves individually stronger and are now able to support each other as new, stronger, independent persons.

I think this was a very complex episode that showed a unique and frankly rare insight into how people handle trauma.