I was hesitant at first to even thinking of joining or even posting on the forum, but I guess I'll at least try to. My name is Christian and I would like to tell you a little bit of myself. Everybody has their own story, but seeing we are all drawn to here, I guess you know what I'm about to tell you. I'll tell you anyway though 🙂

I am starting my journey to find my identity right now. I was raised in Catholic environment and I was baptized when I was a baby. It was quite okay until one day I am different and then I started to fall apart. The knowledge of being gay, with no one to talk and seeing my environment's point of view where being gay is condemned, makes me feel lonely and so I start pushing and walk away from everybody and the church. As I was naturally an introvert, this was a little bit too easy. It was all I can do to avoid being rejected.

Around six months ago, I moved to Sydney. Unfortunately it goes downhill from there. I feel so lonely, getting depression and quite severe social anxiety on the process. I keep replaying my regrets and fear over and over again and this makes me dying inside. One day I realise this is not okay and I have to change myself since nobody's helping me or else. That's why I started to do some research and do something to lift myself up and here I am.

So that's my story. It really is nothing special though. It just like everybody else. And I share this with you to help myself overcome my reluctance of reaching out to people, making me more durable on the process 🙂 SO, I thank you all who read my story up to this point for your time. And since I am new here and really don't know what to do here besides posting, any advices would be nice. I am looking forward to hear from you.

Hi Christian, welcome to our little corner of the internet! Congrats on making a post here – reaching out to others for the first time (even online) is something that requires courage. The first steps are often the most daunting! The first people I came out to were also people I only knew online, but even then, I had to push myself to do it.

As for advice on what else you can do with freedom2b besides posting – I'm glad you asked!

I think the most important thing for you to do right now is continue connecting with people who understand what you're going through. It sounds like you've read a few other peoples stories on the forum already, and that's a great start. A lot of people have benefited greatly from being part of our community here over the years, so my recommendation is simple: keep engaging!

You mentioned you had recently moved to Sydney. To me, this sounds like an opportunity which you'd not have otherwise, as Sydney has an incredibly vibrant rainbow community. There are freedom2b meetings in Sydney every month, which are an awesome time for learning and socialising. I still remember going to my first meeting there, and it was a real eye-opener. While sharing things online is great, I've found nothing beats being able to be there in person with other people who know all about the issues we all face. The folks who run it every month do a fantastic job. It actually took me a while to work up the courage to go along to one for the first time, but I've had no regrets since.

The last thing I'd do is point you towards the other resources on our website here. You mentioned you'd walked away from your church (pretty common – I did the same thing) but didn't mention where you're at with your faith overall. If it's still relevant to you, you might want to check out our Faith & Religion section which has a bunch of non-denominational material that's worth looking in to, as well as some specific networks such as Acceptance Sydney (which is Catholic).

Quote from Chris on July 21, 2014, 11:21 pm

Hi Christian, welcome to our little corner of the internet! Congrats on making a post here – reaching out to others for the first time (even online) is something that requires courage. The first steps are often the most daunting! The first people I came out to were also people I only knew online, but even then, I had to push myself to do it.

As for advice on what else you can do with freedom2b besides posting – I'm glad you asked!

I think the most important thing for you to do right now is continue connecting with people who understand what you're going through. It sounds like you've read a few other peoples stories on the forum already, and that's a great start. A lot of people have benefited greatly from being part of our community here over the years, so my recommendation is simple: keep engaging!

You mentioned you had recently moved to Sydney. To me, this sounds like an opportunity which you'd not have otherwise, as Sydney has an incredibly vibrant rainbow community. There are freedom2b meetings in Sydney every month, which are an awesome time for learning and socialising. I still remember going to my first meeting there, and it was a real eye-opener. While sharing things online is great, I've found nothing beats being able to be there in person with other people who know all about the issues we all face. The folks who run it every month do a fantastic job. It actually took me a while to work up the courage to go along to one for the first time, but I've had no regrets since.

The last thing I'd do is point you towards the other resources on our website here. You mentioned you'd walked away from your church (pretty common – I did the same thing) but didn't mention where you're at with your faith overall. If it's still relevant to you, you might want to check out our Faith & Religion section which has a bunch of non-denominational material that's worth looking in to, as well as some specific networks such as Acceptance Sydney (which is Catholic).

Hi Chris, thanks for the greeting and encouragement. It is quite thrilling when I began but at least I'm still here 😀

As for me, I am thinking maybe I could go learn about all the denominations before deciding as to whether I will go back as a Catholic or moved on. That's the plan anyway, but since it's quite a large number of denominations, I don't even know where to begin. Well, a step at a time. Once again, thanks Chris.

Welcome Christian! 🙂

It's great that you have posted at f2b. There is a lot of support and stories you may relate to from others here.

I second what Chris has suggested in encouraging you to contact the f2b chapter leaders in Sydney. They will make you feel very welcome.

Blessings,

Ann Maree

Thanks for the responses, I feel much appreciated. I still stumbles, problems still comes and I have many bad days, even to this day. However, I would like to believe nothing is useless if I can learn something from it and keep walking ahead.