Definitely have a double life. To tell world outside of this forum and my clinical psychologist (and ex doctors), I am totally functional - in a sense I have what most people think is an ideal life - family, job etc. I look at my life - till I was an adult, probably met most challenges that nonchild or teenager (or even adults) should be faced with. Started to make progressed from late teens - I guess I am lucky to live in a country where there is still a degree of freedom compared to most, food/water/clean air is taken for granted, have a family now, a job, safe place to live and am not at risk of being abused (though I am vulnerable and will need to keep an eye on that one). But deep down, I deal with trauma and struggle with keeping myself alive as that child who was severely abused is my constant travel companion. Being neurodiverse with mental health challenges mean that I struggle to communicate - bit am pretty good at masking this leaving me exhausted all the time. The guilt, feeling of being contaminated and being dirty for having been constantly violated as a child and nkn acceptance of the abuse by my birth family leaves me alone and grappling to just stay "sane" in the eyes of the world. Mine is definitely a double world. I have a policy not to lie and to die rather lie if I have to - which means I am constantly trying to be truthful in a world I feel threatened by and that is hard work. I also promised myself that until my last breath, I will try and look out for people around me and it is heartbreaking to se how many people suffer unnecessarily and that feeling of helplessness is soul destroying. But I guess this is a similar story of so manybofnmy fellow travellers on this forum.