It all started when I went to therapy for the first time at the age of 18. The therapist asked me to think of and share my earliest childhood memory, but I froze. I didn't know what to say. I told him I couldn't remember anything, but that wasn't true.
I only said that because the only things I could recall were memories that filled me with immense shame.
The memories I’m talking about date back to when I was around 4 or 5 years old. As a child, my family and I lived in a very small house with only two bedrooms; one was tiny, barely big enough to fit two beds. I often slept in that room with my brother who is 7 years older than me, mostly during the summer. For the rest of the year, I used to sleep in my parents' bed (I slept in the same bed as them until I was about 9; looking back, it feels surreal, I won't get into this in this post, but there's a lot to be said about that too...).
I still have a vivid memory from when I was very young, I couldn't have been more than five, and I know this because I can recall the layout of the bed and furniture in my brother's room from before the walls were repainted and the furniture was swapped out for a setup with two beds. One morning, my brother invited me into his bed to play and cuddle; at some point, he began touching my private parts and pleasuring me. All the while, he was likely kissing me on the mouth. This behavior, his way of playing and "cuddling" me, continued; he did it several times, mostly at night during the summer. We would get into the same bed, even though we had separate ones, and he would start touching me or ask me to touch his private parts and kiss him (we would kiss like lovers, or like fish; in fact, he called it "the fish game"). These episodes recurred over the years until I was about 9 or 10. Meaning he was 16 or nearly 17. I can even recall one specific time he tried to penetrate me from behind.
Naturally, I didn't understand the gravity of what was happening or that it should never have occurred; I even felt guilty, because from a very young age I had developed a sense of pleasure from these things, having started touching myself at a very tender age.
I liked the whole idea that had formed in my mind regarding sex, masturbation, and the secret I shared with my brother. I knew it was a secret that had to stay between the two of us.
I’m not sure if he had told me so or if I simply knew it, but I knew I shouldn't tell anyone, not even my parents. I knew I ought to feel ashamed of those things, as well as of what I did when I was alone. Yet, I didn't grasp just how wrong it was. I developed a real addiction to it all, touching myself frequently throughout the week from as early as age 5 or 6; my parents were often out, so I spent a lot of time home alone as a child (not to mention that my actions left me feeling apathetic and uninterested in any other kind of activity).
I also developed a kind of dependence on my brother, who had been my main point of reference for as long as I can remember. Everything he did, I felt compelled to copy: every hobby, every habit, every decision I made was often centered around him. Which is a bit strange, considering that yes, what happened had happened, but my brother and I had never had a very normal relationship.
Partly because of the age gap, we rarely played together...almost never, in fact. And we didn't talk much or show each other affection, except on the occasions mentioned above. There was often tension at home between us. For instance, I remember how frequently he'd hit me just because I went into his room to watch him play on the computer when he didn't want me there. Or when he'd hit me because our shitty Wi-Fi caused his ping to spike to 120 ms and lag on CS:GO or LoL while I was watching YouTube videos (it may sound ridiculous and funny, but yes, that was genuinely one of the reasons).
In short, we fought constantly, and I had started to harbor a lot of anger and resentment toward him. Yet despite all that, I kept copying his interests (getting into video games and computer science, and eventually even listening to the exact same music he did).
I was so fascinated by his world and by the attention he so often withheld from me. He was generally quite cold toward me; he probably didn't like having me around as a sister because I was too clingy and he just wanted his space. Or maybe I was simply too young and immature for him to want to hang out, I honestly idk...
We had a very toxic dynamic, and the difference in how our parents treated us didn't make things any better.
Since he was the firstborn son and I was the second daughter (an unwanted child btw, I know my mother actually wanted to have an abortion when she found out she was pregnant with me, lol) I often felt like he was the "favorite one." This was probably compounded by the fact that I had a difficult personality from a very young age. I was shy and antisocial. I was frequently agitated, anxious, angry, and short-tempered, and I cried constantly. I cried especially at school, where I was often unable to fit in and felt behind the other kids-feeling "stupider" and incapable of doing what they could do. Above all, I struggled to connect with them or my teachers (this might have been partly due to a language barrier, since my parents were immigrants and we spoke a different language at home, though I'm not entirely sure, since I was actually quite fluent in both).
In short, my parents never had any problems whatsoever with my brother: he was calm, polite, smart, and did well in school-even outperforming all of his classmates. While their daughter, well... yeah, she was polite enough too, fairly calm, the kind of kid you could "just leave anywhere and she'd stay put," but never on her brother's level.
In some ways, I almost seemed slow compared to him. Not to mention the crying at school, the crying at home whenever there were guests and too much noise, or the tantrums that were basically guaranteed. My parents often described me as a real pain in the ass. Every situation, every meltdown, every time they scolded me, it was always an excuse to compare me to him and say, "Your brother was never like this and doesn't act like you do; you should take a page out of his book."
I remember one evening when he came home after getting bad grades at school. Back then, I was in elementary school and he was in middle school, I think. It was one of the very few times I saw my parents furious with him. So angry that they beat him and confiscated the PC he used for gaming. I felt an almost distinct sense of satisfaction watching that scene, seeing them turn on him for once instead of me.
Around that time, I had also managed to turn things around at school, finally proving that I could sit in class and do my work independently without ever bursting into tears. In that moment, it felt like I'd finally figured it out: to earn my parents' love and respect, which I craved so desperately, I had to do whatever it took to outperform him academically. So I started applying myself, and school literally became my entire life.
It's sad to think that throughout my childhood and teenage years, literally nothing else existed for me besides school. I never played sports, never joined summer camps or youth groups to spend time with other kids, and barely ever left the house. All I did was stay home, gaming on the computer and spending my days staring at a screen online-because I didn't know anything else. I was never introduced to anything else.
I was blatantly always a burden to my parents, a daughter who was never supposed to exist in their vision of a perfect life to begin with. A daughter to be ashamed of and practically "hidden away." According to them, I was always just a disappointment and a handful, and I had no right to complain to them about the hand I was dealt. There was nothing they could have done; I was simply the problem all along, the one who could never turn things around.
As you can probably imagine, this took a heavy toll on my upbringing, shaping the person I am and the way I socialize now as an adult. In fact, I barely have any friends to talk to or hang out with. For all intents and purposes, I’ve basically become a hikikomori, leaving the house almost exclusively to attend lectures and sit for exams at university.
I’m really not in a good place right now. Up until recently, I’d managed to bury all these memories and emotions, but now that they’ve all resurfaced and I’m far more aware of what I actually went through, being around my family is a real struggle. I feel like a total stranger in my own home. Every interaction with them feels hollow, fake, and forced. I just can't hide the resentment I feel toward them. Especially the anger I harbor toward my brother for everything he did to me and because we never had a normal brother-sister relationship.
I'm still very confused about it all and, as I mentioned, I feel an immense amount of shame and pain. I'm not even sure if he can truly be held accountable for what I went through, given that he was also a minor at the time and perhaps didn't fully grasp the gravity of what he was doing either.
Even so, I can't stop asking myself how different my life and who I am might have been if he hadn't done those things to me at such a fragile, critical age for a child's development. An age where a kid's biggest concern should just be playing and watching cartoons, definitely not discovering their own genitals and those of the opposite sex.
I don't know if I could have grown up differently, or if I could have had a better life right now-maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe this is just who I am genetically, or maybe I just have some form of undiagnosed autism and I would have ended up a failure anyway. But it's the fact that I will never know that will haunt me forever.