AITAH for deciding to cut ties with my brother and any family that thinks that i have to forgive him for abusing me?
I am 27M and my brother is 31M. We honestly had experienced lots of hardships at an early age. Bankruptcy, abusive father, divorce, moving to a third world country, moving back to the US and living in poverty. The list can go on and on. The abuse my brother put me through started at the age of 7-8 for me.
I still vividly remember that day. He waited for my parents to leave, he locked the doors closed all the windows turned the AC on and then it would start. He looked me in my eyes and told me that if i ever told my parents about the abuse, he would kill me. The abuse could be for any reason. Maybe I was being an annoying little brother maybe i yelled at him and he didn’t like that maybe he wanted my allowance so he could buy drugs (later stage of life). There truly was no telling what would trigger it.
He would film himself pranking me while i was in my underwear as a middle schooler and post it on the internet for clout. He would set up cameras nears the bathroom doors and film me when i went to the bathroom (lived in a basement where there were no locks in the bathroom) and threatened to post those videos if i ever pissed him off. He once harassed me for 1-2 hours for my allowance constantly and when i finally gave in because i was tired of hearing it, I threw the money at him and he decided to beat me with a chair saying that “that was the most disrespectful thing you could do”. I could go on for hours about the shit he put me through.
The abuse stopped when i was around 19. Now a several years later my family members are telling me that i have to essentially forgive him and get over it simply for their comfort and I don’t think i ever will. The years of damage he cause me in my adolescent years still affect me to this very day. I got SA’ed because I learned to freeze in those traumatizing moments of my life due his abuse. He to this day thinks that I’m being dramatic and that I am simply making these scenarios up.
Never once has he tried to make things right, never once has he tried to apologize and yet I supposed to be the bigger person and forgive him? Every time i tried to let him back into my life for the last couple of years i end up regretting that decision and today after what he put me through I am no longer willing to even try. I will have this hatred for him for the rest of my life and if anyone tells me that i have to put aside anything for the disgusting fuck of a human being, I will cut them out of my life.
Posted Mar 5, 2026, 11:47 AM UTC