You can see it everywhere nowadays: self-promotion. I stay away from social media as much as possible, because it seems like it is an endless feed of people only showing the good side of their life or trying to show how wonderful they are. There’s even a term for it…
One of the strongest emotions I’ll never forget from my childhood was being afraid. Through my father’s parenting style - he was one to never spare the rod and would punish us in advance for things we didn’t do yet - and the beliefs that I grew up with, I…
Control was a common theme that permeated our house and church. Every aspect of our life came down to who had control and who didn’t. From my earliest memories, I knew there wasn’t much I had control over. Getting older I thought I would have more freedom, but it never…
I'm still not completely sure how my parents found Branhasim. They were both very vague about the whole thing, but I think they were introduced to it through some friends or by a stranger at a religious event they went to. My parents were not particularly religious at this time.
It was the winter of 1998. To be more precise, it was my winter vacation from university of 1998-99. I had successfully completed a year and a half of university and I was slowly starting to realize more and more that I really needed to get out of the situation…
When I feel close and comfortable enough with someone, and if the topic of one’s earlier years comes up, I will share a little of my background. I've seen many different reactions to my story. Some I could tell right away were uncomfortable. Others were simply surprised and curious. A…
But there I was, in my father's hotel room searching for a psychiatric hospital. He adamantly said that he did not want to go to a hospital in Slovakia. I told him that I didn't even know if there are any such hospitals close by in Slovakia anyway. The nearest…
My father visited Alex in Taipei a few times, and on one occasion he decided he would stay for three months. He always talks about how he hates it in New York and refers to it in our conversations as "hell on Earth". My father lives rent free in an…
He lasted four hours until he needed to go to a psychiatric hospital. After picking my father up from the airport, getting his rental car, and making a pitstop at the grocery store for wine and cookies, we went to his hotel. Living in Vienna, Austria, means everything is generally…