estrangement
"It was a choice I made at the time for [my son], but I really think, in choosing him, I also chose myself.”
For the sake of my mental health, I don’t speak with my parents. But if they got ill, or even died, with things as they are, I don’t know if I could forgive myself.
I have been looking after myself since the age of sixteen, when I moved into supported housing alone. But that doesn’t mean that it suddenly becomes easy.