I know how you feel. I have my feelings invalidated by people all the time, esp. my family. My mother especially but my dad as well. If I feel something and say it they will tell me I'm crazy to feel this way and that my feelings are fake and I shouldn't feel this way and even sometimes tell me I'm mentally sick for feeling a certain way. Also tell me life is about facts and not about feeling things like joy or peace. They always get anrgy at me and are full of anger but if I try to defend myself and get a bit angry (bc they attack me) they threaten to send me to the psychiatrist and put me on medication. I'm not allowed to feel anger but they can. They've been like this since I was born and I was happier living in a foreign country and not keeping contact with them. I had to come back bc I was sick and couldn't care for myself and they have told me that I was crazy and that I had a problem for feeling sick. So I'm not even allowed to be sick. They haven't tried to help me at all. Moving to be with another relative at the end of the month and will never come back here.

Another group of people I have problems with are the religious circles. I'm a christian and in christian circles feelings are frowned upon. They will tell you things like "we walk by faith and not feelings". However for me, I really make decisions based on feelings and gut feelings. I feel things very deeply....and the religious circles have really misunderstood me. Whenever I have tried to express feelings (frustration, sadness, joy, etc) I was always told I was crazy for having feelings. A lot of christian people are like robots who cannot think indepently. A lot of them are logical people living from the top opf their heads.

The result of sharing with people and being constantly ivalidated is that I now feel empty and have no emotions for the most part. I may feel things once in awhile but most of the time I feel nothing. I know my feelings will come back once I'm out of here.

LESSON: I don't share feelings with anyone now. I will never do that again unless I know the person very well and feel safe with them and feel that they can be trusted with me emotions.

Good luck to you, you're not alone