Went NC without telling anyone and needing reassurance
I made a post in another sub earlier today and someone recommended I come here. The people in the other sub have been really nice but I guess I just want to hear from others who have been where I am.
I went no contact with the majority of my family a few years ago with no warning. I only talk to my sibling, with very filtered messages to be careful not to give too much info. I moved away, deleted my socials, and changed my number. I gave them no context. There were no ultimatums. I didn’t even say goodbye to anyone.
For context, my dad was severely abusive in most every sense of the word for the majority of my life. My mom was neglectful and emotionally abusive and knew all the ways my dad was abusing me and letting others abuse me. I’m not speculating that she knew. She saw him do it, intervened on occasion when it got too violent, and regularly cleaned up after him and tended to my wounds. She knew. Any attempts to talk about the abuse I endured led to her crying about how terrible of a mother she was, but she never made any effort to get me away from him.
I also cut contact with extended family because I don’t know who knew what was happening and who is just genuinely fooled by my parents’ “perfect” mask. I don’t trust them not to give my parents information about me.
I moved away without telling any of them and slowly interacted with them less and less before finally having enough guilt tripping from my parents for my distance and cutting them off completely.
I don’t want them to know where I am. I don’t trust my traumatized self to not get sucked back in. My mom’s tears still make me feel awful and like I’ve done something wrong, so distance feels safer. I’ve done a lot of healing in the years we’ve been apart. I’ve been in therapy since before I cut contact. But the holidays have me missing the mom I always longed for, even if she isn’t that. I’m not going to get back into contact with any of them. It doesn’t feel safe or conducive to my healing. I’m just questioning if I should have given them some context or a chance to know what was happening. Was it wrong of me to just disappear?
Posted Dec 1, 2025, 3:10 AM UTC