I only recently got into witchcraft through crystals and I haven’t done any spells or anything, but honestly I feel so free. My grandma is Baptist Christian and she often pushes religion on those around her. When I was young, she always told me that we are all sinners who deserve death and punishment. Combining this with my father being verbally abusive and that sealed it in my brain that I was a horrible person who deserved to die. I attempted to kill myself in 7th grade and I planned to try again in 8th because being in my own body felt disgusting. Up until last year, I convinced myself that I believe in God because I wanted to make her happy. I truly felt trapped and my only escape from the self-hatred was self-harm. My mom also has extreme religious trauma and felt and did the same things I did. Witchcraft is a decision I am making for myself, for the first time in my life. I want to better myself and I want to be independent. This is a decision that I am making and fuck anyone’s opinions on it. This is the first time in forever that I’ve felt independent and felt like I deserve to be happy. I haven’t cut in over two weeks and I feel ok with myself. I’ve made so much progress and I’m so proud of myself for taking the steps I needed to in order to get better.