And that doesn’t address the content it offers.

Trump.

Reddit stopped being fun last November.

I am not engaging with it as much as I used to, and now I am actively annoyed with it and trying to make Lemmy my default again.

I replied to @SpaceFox@lemmy.ml, and you can find my reply here.

Here’s the things that actually helped me:

• Teachers/authority figures making me feel heard and valued. (From ECS to Highschool graduation, I had maybe 4 teachers who really went out of their way to help)
• Fellow students who stood up/spoke up for me (I had a group of boys corner me in the washroom and start berating me and until I broke down and started crying. A boy, who I didn’t even know his name, but was accqainted with came in and stood up to the group. I will never forget what he did.)
• Friends
• people going out of their way to make me feel welcome (when it happened I didn’t know why they were being so nice to me.)

Things I think would have helped:

• Knowing that it’s okay to need help
• someone telling me the things happening are not acceptable or normal

No idea what I was a part of, but it is special Ed adjacent.

I was forced into a program in Jr. High because I had behavior issues (of course nothing was done to the bullies and attackers, just the person retaliating). It was like a 3 week program where they analyzed you (poorly because I knew all their testing methods and was not cooperating), stuffed you in a corner, and told you do homework for the day and then an hour for phys-ed. I stopped doing the homework after a while and just started playing my GBA.

It was humiliating, but I will say, the kids removed from the their situations were actually really great people despite being labeled as trouble makers or problems.

Anyways, I changed schools, and then changed schools, then got expelled and changed schools again, and eventually I graduated highschool. I then attended university and completed two programs.

Now, over 20 years later, I am actively unpacking and working on these issues from school because I fell through the cracks and was actively punished for being a victim.